Erica Villa, Valentina Boarino, Antonella Grottola, Roberta Gelmini, Nicole G. Lama – 30 December 2003 – A liver transplant recipient reinfected with a lamivudine‐resistant mixed wild‐type/pre‐S1–deleted hepatitis B virus (HBV) strain and rescued with adefovir dipivoxil was still HBV DNA positive after more than 1 year of therapy. Analysis of serum HBV DNA, amplified by polymerase chain reaction and directly sequenced by dideoxy nucleotide chain‐termination method, showed that adefovir inhibited the wild type, but not the pre‐S1–deleted HBV.

Christine E. Staatz, Charlene Willis, Paul J. Taylor, Stephen V. Lynch, Susan E. Tett – 30 December 2003 – Patient outcomes in transplantation would improve if dosing of immunosuppressive agents was individualized. The aim of this study is to develop a population pharmacokinetic model of tacrolimus in adult liver transplant recipients and test this model in individualizing therapy. Population analysis was performed on data from 68 patients. Estimates were sought for apparent clearance (CL/F) and apparent volume of distribution (V/F) using the nonlinear mixed effects model program (NONMEM).

Steven‐Huy Han, Paul Martin, Marc Edelstein, Rena Hu, Gregg Kunder, Curtis Holt, Sammy Saab, Francisco Durazo, Leonard Goldstein, Douglas Farmer, Rafik M. Ghobrial, Ronald W. Busuttil – 30 December 2003 – Recurrent hepatitis B infection after liver transplantation was previously frequent and associated with significant allograft failure and mortality. Recurrence rates of hepatitis B were improved with the use of passive immunoprophylaxis with hepatitis B immune globulin, and later, lamivudine monotherapy.

Rahul S. Koti, Wenxuan Yang, Michael R. Dashwood, Brian R. Davidson, Alexander M. Seifalian – 30 December 2003 – Ischemic preconditioning (IPC) may protect the liver from ischemia reperfusion injury by nitric oxide formation. This study has investigated the effect of ischemic preconditioning on hepatic microcirculation (HM), and the relationship between nitric oxide metabolism and HM in preconditioning. Rats were allocated to 5 groups: 1. sham laparotomy; 2. 45 minutes lobar ischemia followed by 2‐hour reperfusion (IR); 3.

Mary E. Rinella, Michael M. Abecassis – 30 December 2003

Robert J. Fontana, Halimi Hamidullah, Hanh Nghiem, Joel K. Greenson, Hero Hussain, Jorge Marrero, Steve Rudich, Leslie A. McClure, Juan Arenas – 30 December 2003 – The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is increasing in the United States. Although liver transplantation is an effective means of treating selected patients, pretransplantation tumor progression may preclude some patients from undergoing transplantation.

Wael I. Youssef, Kevin D. Mullen – 30 December 2003

Marina Berenguer – 30 December 2003

Federico G. Villamil – 30 December 2003 – 1Patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) for hepatitis B without effective prophylaxis have a high risk for recurrent infection and severe graft damage, leading to death or re‐OLT.2Long‐term prophylaxis with hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIg) significantly reduces the risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV) recurrence and increases survival.

Pierre‐Alain Clavien, Markus Selzner – 30 December 2003