Nicola F. Fletcher, Rupesh Sutaria, Juandy Jo, Amy Barnes, Miroslava Blahova, Luke W. Meredith, Francois‐Loic Cosset, Stuart M. Curbishley, David H. Adams, Antonio Bertoletti, Jane A. McKeating – 29 October 2013 – Macrophages are critical components of the innate immune response in the liver. Chronic hepatitis C is associated with immune infiltration and the infected liver shows a significant increase in total macrophage numbers; however, their role in the viral life cycle is poorly understood.

Young‐Joo Yang, Ju Hyun Shim, Kang Mo Kim, Young‐Suk Lim, Han Chu Lee – 29 October 2013 – A primary nonresponse to oral drugs against hepatitis B virus (HBV) is a generally accepted criterion for interrupting treatment. We investigated whether the concept of primary nonresponse suggested by current American (AASLD) and European (EASL) guidelines is appropriate for treatment with entecavir (ETV). The study included 1,254 treatment‐naïve patients who had pretreatment HBV DNA levels of >2,000 IU/mL and received ETV 0.5 mg/day for over 6 months.

Alessandro Cucchetti, Alessandro Vitale, Matteo Cescon, Martina Gambato, Lorenzo Maroni, Matteo Ravaioli, Giorgio Ercolani, Patrizia Burra, Umberto Cillo, Antonio D. Pinna – 26 October 2013 – Liver transplantation (LT) represents the only chance of long‐term survival for patients with end‐stage liver disease. When the mortality rate for transplant patients returns to the same level as that for the general population, they can be considered statistically cured. However, cure models in the setting of LT have never been applied.

Laura Lomaglio, John Isaac, Darius Mirza, M. Thamara PR Perera, Paolo Muiesan – 26 October 2013

Eric J. Keller, Paul Y. Kwo, Paul R. Helft – 26 October 2013 – The disparity between the demand for and supply of donor livers has continued to grow over the last 2 decades, and this has placed greater weight on the need for efficient and effective liver allocation. Although the use of extended criteria donors has shown great potential, it remains unregulated. A survival benefit–based model was recently proposed to answer calls to increase efficiency and reduce futile transplants.

Sue V. McDiarmid – 24 October 2013

Nicolas Goossens, Francesco Negro – 24 October 2013 – Genotype 3 of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been long considered an easy‐to‐treat infection, with higher cure rates (∼70%) than other viral genotypes with the standard combination of pegylated interferon‐α and ribavirin. However, the relative insensitivity of this genotype to most protease inhibitors and the recent unexpected data on decreased effectiveness of sofosbuvir have raised questions on how to achieve universal cure, a goal that seems reasonable for other genotypes.

Nicolas Goossens, Francesco Negro – 24 October 2013 – Genotype 3 of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) has been long considered an easy‐to‐treat infection, with higher cure rates (∼70%) than other viral genotypes with the standard combination of pegylated interferon‐α and ribavirin. However, the relative insensitivity of this genotype to most protease inhibitors and the recent unexpected data on decreased effectiveness of sofosbuvir have raised questions on how to achieve universal cure, a goal that seems reasonable for other genotypes.

Sith Siramolpiwat, Susana Seijo, Rosa Miquel, Annalisa Berzigotti, Angeles Garcia‐Criado, Anna Darnell, Fanny Turon, Virginia Hernandez‐Gea, Jaume Bosch, Juan Carlos Garcia‐Pagán – 23 October 2013 – Idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH) is a rare cause of intrahepatic portal hypertension. Data on natural history and prognosis of IPH are limited. We sought to describe the complications and long‐tem outcome of IPH by retrospectively studying 69 biopsy‐proven cases of IPH. Mean duration of follow‐up was 6.7 ± 4.6 years.

Sith Siramolpiwat, Susana Seijo, Rosa Miquel, Annalisa Berzigotti, Angeles Garcia‐Criado, Anna Darnell, Fanny Turon, Virginia Hernandez‐Gea, Jaume Bosch, Juan Carlos Garcia‐Pagán – 23 October 2013 – Idiopathic portal hypertension (IPH) is a rare cause of intrahepatic portal hypertension. Data on natural history and prognosis of IPH are limited. We sought to describe the complications and long‐tem outcome of IPH by retrospectively studying 69 biopsy‐proven cases of IPH. Mean duration of follow‐up was 6.7 ± 4.6 years.