Joel Bass – 1 July 1993

Paul D. Berk – 1 July 1993 – Health care costs are climbing throughout the western world. Aging populations and the costs of advanced technology are the principal forces behind much of this global increase. No country has yet succeeded in containing these growing costs other than by some form of rationing. A variety of experimental strategies, including managed competition, are being considered or tested, but none is clearly effective.

Alexandru I. Musat, Carol A. Sattler, Gerald L. Sattler, Henry C. Pitot – 1 July 1993 – The cell–basement membrane interaction is an important determinant of epithelial cell polarity. Although hepatocytes in situ are polarized, no morphologically identifiable basement membrane is found at their basal surface. However, several studies have demonstrated immunoreactivity to basement membrane proteins in the space of Disse, indicating the existence of an extracellular matrix, albeit of low density.

Narumi Ohara, Norbert F. Voelke, Shih‐Wen Chang – 1 July 1993 – Advanced cirrhosis is known to be associated with extrahepatic organ dysfunction, but the mechanism for this cirrhosis complication is largely unknown. We measured tissue albumin leakage in rats with biliary cirrhosis or acute cholestasis and tested the hypothesis that arachidonic acid metabolites contribute to the vascular permeability change.

1 June 1993

Sybrand Y. de Boer, Ad A. M. Masclee, Wai Fan Lam, Jaap Schipper, Jan B. M. J. Jansen, Cornelius B. H. W. Lamers – 1 June 1993 – The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of acute stable hyperglycemia on gallbladder motility, plasma cholecystokinin level and pancreatic polypeptide secretion. Gallbladder emptying in response to modified sham feeding and regular feeding was determined in six healthy subjects on two separate occasions during normoglycemia (serum glucose = 5 mmol/L) and during hyperglycemia (serum glucose = 15 mmol/L).

Neil D. Theise, Jonathan D. Lapook, Swan N. Thung – 1 June 1993 – We report an incidental small hepatocellular carcinoma in a patient with chronic hepatitis C infection without cirrhosis. The existence of portal triads and the Meyenburg complexes within the lesion and atypical subnodules suggests that the carcinoma has arisen in the context of a macroregenerative nodule rather than the whole nodule being an early, spreading carcinoma. A growing body of evidence supports macroregenerative nodules as being precursor lesions in the development of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Gitte M. Knudsen, Jes Schmidt, Thomas Almdal, Olaf B. Paulson, Hendrik Vilstrup – 1 June 1993 – We repeatedly measured blood‐brain barrier passage of phenylalanine, leucine, glucose and GABA in nine patients with hepatic encephalopathy using the intravenous double‐indicator technique. Controls were four patients without liver disease and two of the patients who had recovered completely from their hepatic encephalopathy. The corrected cerebral venous output curves were fitted by use of a three‐compartment model with four parameters.

Yamina Lazizi, Pascal Dubreuil, Jacques Pillot – 1 June 1993 – HBcAg and antibody to HBcAg were assayed in chronic hepatitis B virus carriers who were not reactive for HBc antibodies on available commercial tests. HBc antibody–negative sera, collected before the onset of the acute phase in recovering patients, were used as controls. A high level of HBcAg was detected in HBc antibody–negative chronic hepatitis B virus carriers after dissociative treatment. HBcAg levels were correlated with serum hepatitis B virus DNA levels.

Steven N. Fine – 1 June 1993