1 August 1994

Joel F. Platt, James H. Ellis, Jonathan M. Rubin, Robert M. Merion, Michael R. Lucey – 1 August 1994 – Hepatorenal failure, a well‐recognized complication of established liver disease, is characterized by early renal hemodynamic changes (vasoconstriction) before clinically recognized kidney disease. This renal vasoconstruction (increased renal vascular resistance) should be detectable noninvasively by Doppler ultrasonography.

Ronald J. Sokol – 1 August 1994 – The LEC rat is an inbred mutant strain with spontaneous hepatitis isolated from Long‐Evans rats. Since approximately 40% of LEC rats die of fulminant hepatitis, the rat serves an animal model for studying the pathogenesis and treatment of human fulminant hepatitis. The remaining 60% of LEC rats survive and develop chronic (prolonged) hepatitis and subsequently develop liver cancer.

John Hansen, David L. Cherwitz, John I. Allen – 1 August 1994 – An in vivo model of ethanol ingestion in rats was used to examine tumor necrosis factor‐α production after intravenous injection with lipopolysaccharide or saline solution. Four groups of 125‐gm male Sprague‐Dawley rats were given one of the following four diets: liquid ethanol diet (ethanol, 36% of calories), liquid control diet, chow ad libitum or control liquid diet pair‐fed to match calories consumed by ethanol‐fed rats. After 6 wk of diet, all rats were injected with 1 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide or 0.9% saline.

Anthony S. Basile, E. Anthony Jones, Peter Widler, Hans U. Fisch, Thomas Schläepfer, Jürg Reichen, Peter Schoch – 1 August 1994

Frank J. Farrell, Marie Nguyen, Susan Woodley, Joanne C. Imperial, Richard Garcia‐Kennedy, Kevin Man, Carlos O. Esquivel, Emmet B. Keeffe – 1 August 1994 – Recent preliminary reports suggest a poor outcome of orthotopic liver transplantation for patients with hemochromatosis. We analyzed an institutional experience with orthotopic liver transplantation for hemochromatosis, focusing on factors contributing to increased morbidity and mortality. Between March 1988 and October 1992, nine of 249 adults (3.6%) undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation had hemochromatosis.

Wolf‐Bernhard Offensperger, Silke Offensperger, Barbara Stoll, Wolfgang Gerok, Dieter Häussinger – 1 July 1994 – In cultured hepatocytes from in vivo duck hepatitis B virus‐infected ducks the effect of medium osmolarity on viral replication was studied. A 10‐day exposure to hypotonic media (277 mOsm/L due to removal of 26 mmol/L NaCl) lowered the duck hepatitis B virus DNA content of cells and of the medium by about 50%, whereas hyperosmotic exposure (421 mOsm/L by addition of 46 mmol/L NaCl) increased it about four‐fold compared with normotonic standard incubation medium (329 mOsm/L).

Arun J. Sanyal, Arthur M. Freedman, Mitchell L. Shiffman, Preston P. Purdum, Velimir A. Luketic, Andrea K. Cheatham – 1 July 1994 – Portosystemic encephalopathy is a common complication of surgical portacaval shunts. Recently, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts have been proposed to produce portal decompression in a manner analogous to a side‐to‐side portacaval shunt, but with less morbidity. The incidence and clinical spectrum of portosystemic encephalopathy after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts, however, had not been previously prospectively defined.

Mathew E. Brunson, Gary L. Davis, Johnson Y. N. Lau, Juan C. Scornik, Richard C. Howard, William W. Pfaff – 1 July 1994

Nancy L. Ascher, John R. Lake, Jean Emond, John Roberts – 1 July 1994 – Since the introduction of techniques to reliably identify antibody to the hepatitis C virus and quantitation of hepatitis C virus, there has been an increasing interest in the behavior of chronic hepatitis C infection with liver transplantation. Ninety‐seven patients with chronic active hepatitis C and fifty‐nine patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis underwent 100 and 62 liver transplantation procedures, respectively, at a single institution.