Antonio Follo, Jose María Llovet, Miquel Navasa, Ramón Planas, Xavier Forns, Anna Francitorra, Antoni Rimola, Miguel Angel Gassull, Vicente Arroyo, Joan Rodés – 1 December 1994 – Although spontaneous bacterial peritonitis is considered a precipitating factor of renal impairment in cirrhosis, no study specifically addressing this problem has been reported. This study was aimed at assessing the incidence, clinical course, predictive factors and prognosis of renal impairment in cirrhotic patients with peritonitis.

Darius Moradpour, Josef Altorfer, Renata Flury, Peter Greminger, Christa Meyenberger, Res Jost, Martin Schmid – 1 December 1994 – We describe a 33‐yr‐old pregnant woman in whom a primary biliary cirrhosis—like syndrome developed after 2 wk of chlorpromazine therapy. The clinical course was characterized by severe jaundice lasting 22 mo, intense pruritus, fever, steatorrhea, high alkaline phosphatase levels and hypercholesterolemia.

Masayuki Ohta, Makoto Hashizume Hidefumi Higashi, Kiichiro Ueno, Morimasa Tomikawa, Fumiaki Kishihara, Hirofumi Kawanaka, Kazuo Tanoue, Keizo Sugimachi – 1 December 1994 – Controversy exists as to the nature of gastric perfusion in portal‐hypertensive gastropathy. To investigate portal hemodynamics and gastric mucosal perfusion in cirrhotic patients with and without portalhypertensive gastropathy, we subjected 56 cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension to portal vein catheterization, pneumatic pressure sensor technique, duplex sonography and laser Doppler flowmetry.

Masayuki Matsumura, Yasuro Niwa, Naoya Kato, Yutaka Komatsu, Shuichiro Shiina, Takao Kawabe, Takeo Kawase, Hiroshi Toyoshima, Masashi Ihori, Yasushi Shiratori, Masao Omata – 1 December 1994 – We attempted to detect circulating hepatocellular carcinoma by demonstrating hepatocyte‐associated mRNA in the nuclear cell component of peripheral blood using nested reverse transcription—polymerase chain reaction because of the extremely small number of tumor cells in the circulation.

Michael A. Klein – 1 December 1994

Robert Canning – 1 December 1994

Véronique Lefebvre, Isabelle Goffin, Pedro Buc‐Calderon – 1 December 1994 – The protective effect of fructose with regard to hypoxia‐induced cell injury was investigated. The addition of fructose (2 to 20 mmol/L) protected hepatocytes against hypoxia‐mediated cell lysis in a concentration‐dependent way. The intracellular ATP content was initially decreased as a result of fructose‐1‐phosphate formation, but it remained constant during the hypoxic incubation. Conversely, high initial ATP values observed at low fructose concentrations progressively declined.

Silvia Fargion, Anna Ludovica Fracanzani, Alberto Piperno, Mario Braga, Roberta D'Alba, Guido Ronchi, Gemino Fiorelli – 1 December 1994 – To identify factors that might be useful as prognostic indexes for the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in Italian patients with genetic hemochromatosis, 152 homozygotes were studied prospectively for 1 to 229 mo.

Guntram Lock, Axel Holstege, Jörgen Schölmerich, Peter Neuhaus – 1 December 1994

Soumit K. Basu, Jayanta Roy Chowdhury – 1 December 1994 – The potential of reconstituted Sendai viral envelopes containing only the fusion protein (F‐virosomes) was evaluated for a targeted cytosolic delivery of lysozyme to human hepatoblastoma cells (HepG2) in culture. 125I‐Lysozyme loaded into F‐virosomes was used to monitor its fusion‐mediated transfer to the HepG2 cells. Using fusion assay based on the transfer of water soluble probe, we have demonstrated the existence of aqueous connection between F‐virosomes and target cells.