Cristiana Barbera, Flavia Bortolotti, Carlo Crivellaro, Alessandra Coscia, Lucia Zancan, Paolo Cadrobbi, Gabriella Nebbia, Maria Nazarena Pillan, Loredana Lepore, Teresa Parrella, Giuseppe Dastoli, Maurizia R. Brunetto, Ferruccio Bonino – 1 August 1994 – We conducted a prospective controlled study of the efficacy of recombinant interferon‐α2a in 77 children (44 boys, 33 girls, mean age 8 yr) with chronic hepatitis B. All patients had seropositive results for HBeAg and hepatitis B virus DNA; 52 had chronic persistent or nonspecific reactive hepatitis, and 25 had mild active hepatitis.

Paul Janowitz, Wolfgang Kratzer, Thomas Zemmler, Jürgen Tudyka, Johannes G. Wechsler – 1 August 1994 – Although the ultrasonic detection of gallbladder sludge is relatively frequent, its clinical importance remains unclear, partly because of the paucity of reliable investigations regarding its natural course in patients without stones. In a retrospective study we investigated the course and clinical significance of gallbladder sludge in patients without stones or other identified gallbladder abnormalities.

Keiji Matsushita, Seiji Kawasaki, Masatoshi Makuuchi – 1 August 1994 – To evaluate the relevance of the hypothesis that the arterial ketone body ratio (acetoacetate/β‐hydroxybutyrate) can reflect the liver mitochondrial redox potential, we investigated the influence of ketone body metabolism in peripheral tissues on the arterial ketone body ratio during conditions in which no ketone body was available to the systemic circulation: during total clamping of the hepatoduodenal ligament in 37 patients undergoing partial hepatectomy and during the anhepatic phase in 14 liver transplant recipients

Tsutomu Masaki, Masaaki Tokuda, Takashi Fujimura, Makoto Ohnishi, Yuji Tai, Kazuhiro Miyamoto, Toshifumi Itano, Hideki Matsui, Seishiro Watanabe, Ken‐Ichi Sogawa, Takahisa Yamada, Ryoji Konishi, Mikio Nishioka, Osamu Hatase – 1 August 1994 – Annexin is the name of a new family of Ca2+‐dependent membrane‐binding proteins. Eleven types of its related proteins have been reported to date. Among those, annexin I and annexin II have been reported to possess many biological functions in vitro. Its actual role in vivo, however, is yet unknown.

Ryohei Izumi, Kouichi Shimizu, Takayoshi Iyobe, Tohru Ii, Masao Yagi, Osamu Matsui, Akitaka Nonomura, Itsuo Miyazaki – 1 August 1994 – Vascular invasion and intrahepatic metastasis by hepatocellular carcinoma are important factors predisposing to tumor recurrence. Recurrences of this malignancy occur frequently in residual liver, and its prevention is one of the most important factors in obtaining better surgical survival.

Makoto Ohbu, Masahiko Okudaira, Kiyoharu Watanabe, Satoshi Kaneko, Tomoko Takai – 1 August 1994 – Aberrant vessels, which are defined as dilated blood vessels immediately adjacent to the peripheral portal tract, appear under conditions of extrahepatic portal obstruction and nodular regenerative hyperplasia as well as idiopathic portal hypertension. Our study was undertaken to compare their morphological aspects in these three disease cases.

JuliáN Panés, Josep M. Piqué, Josep M. Bordas, Maria Casadevall, Josep Terés, Jaime Bosch, Juan Rodés – 1 August 1994 – Gastric perfusion has been found to be increased in cirrhotic patients with portal‐hypertensive gastropathy. This phenomenon may contribute to gastric bleeding from these lesions. Therefore drugs reducing gastric mucosal perfusion may be beneficial in the treatment of bleeding portal‐hypertensive gastropathy.

Kazumitsu Takagi, Hiroshi Ashida, Joji Utsunomiya – 1 August 1994 – We investigated the effect of splenomegaly on portal hemodynamics during and after distal splenorenal shunt with splenopancreatic disconnection in 27 patients with nonalcoholic cirrhosis (13 with and 14 without splenic enlargement). Data were obtained by Doppler flowmetry, electromagnetic flowmetry and computed tomographical scanning. The splenomegaly group had a significantly higher preoperative splenic and portal blood flow than the nonsplenomegaly group.

Yukito Adachi, Blair U. Bradford, Wenshi Gao, Heidi K. Bojes, Ronald G. Thurman – 1 August 1994 – It is well recognized that consumption of alcohol leads to liver disease in a dose‐dependent manner; however, the exact mechanisms remain unclear. Hypoxia subsequent to a hypermetabolic state may be involved; therefore, when it was observed recently that inactivation of Kupffer cells prevented stimulation of hepatic oxygen uptake by alcohol, the idea that Kupffer cells participate in early events that ultimately lead to alcohol‐induced liver disease became a real possibility.

Harold O. Conn – 1 August 1994