Nick Sheron, George Bird, John Koskinas, Bernard Portmann, Miroslav Ceska, Ivan Lindley, Roger William – 1 July 1993 – Acute alcoholic hepatitis is characterized by a unique degree of liver neutrophil infiltration, often accompanied by marked peripheral neutrophilia in the absence of demonstrable bacterial or fungal infection. In this study we assayed plasma and tissue levels of a potent neutrophil activator and chemotaxin, interleukin‐8, in patients with a spectrum of alcoholic liver diseases and in normal and diseased control subjects.

Christine Silvain, Stéphane Carpentier, Denis Sautereau, Bella Czernichow, Jean‐michel Métreau, Eric Fort, Pierre Ingrand, Jean Boyer, Bernard Pillegand, Michel Doffël, Daniel Dhumeaux, Michel Beauchan – 1 July 1993 – We undertook a multicenter randomized trial to compare the efficacy of terlipressin combined with transdermal nitroglycerin and that of octreotide in the emergency control of acute variceal hemorrhage in cirrhosis.

Jen‐Hwey Chiu, Li‐Hwa Wu, Hwa‐Li Kao, Hwey‐May Chang, Shyh‐Haw Tsay, Che‐Chuan Loong, Gar‐Yang Cha, Wing‐Yu Lui – 1 July 1993 – To test the hypothesis that increased proliferative capacity of cells in a liver remnant is a risk factor for tumor recurrence in patients who have undergone liver resection for hepatocellular carcinoma, DNA flow‐cytometric measurement and cell‐cycle analysis of the nontumor parts of resected hepatocellular carcinomas (tumor size <5 cm) were performed. The disease‐free survival rates 1, 2, 3 and 4 yr after surgery were 64%, 58%, 43%, and 36%, respectively.

Florence Lacaille, Khazal Paradis – 1 July 1993 – Ursodeoxycholic acid is an efficient treatment for putatively immune‐mediated liver diseases, but its mechanism of action is unknown. We studied human mononuclear cell proliferation as an in vitro model for cell‐mediated immunity in the presence of ursodeoxycholic acid, its glycoconjugate and tauroconjugate and chenodeoxycholic acid at concentrations of 5, 25 and 50 μmol/L.

1 July 1993

Tadashi Iwao, Atsushi Toyonaga, Motoki Ikegami, Kazuhiko Oho, Michihiro Sumino, Hiroshi Harada, Munenori Sakaki, Hiroyuki Shigemori, Toshichika Aoki, Kyuichi Tanikawa – 1 July 1993 – Although congestive gastric mucosal circulation has been suggested in patients with portal‐hypertensive gastropathy, whether it is due to “active” (overflow) or “passive” (stasis) congestion is not known. To answer this question, we assessed regional gastric mucosal blood flow with laser Doppler flowmetry in 57 patients with portal hypertension and 30 controls.

Ka‐Sic Ho, Bret A. Lashner, Jean C. Emond, Alfred L. Baker – 1 July 1993 – Prior variceal bleeding may adversely affect the prognosis of orthotopic liver transplantation. We studied this question by evaluating all 175 adult patients undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation at our institution to determine risk factors associated with mortality after transplantation. Seventy patients demonstrated prior variceal bleeding, and of those, 32 had a course of sclerotherapy. Thirteen also had portal systemic shunts.

John Polio, Cornel C. Sieber, Emanuel Lerne, Roberto J. Groszmann – 1 July 1993 – Most studies testing vasoactive agents in portalhypertensive rats have been performed in young animals. To assess age‐related changes in hemodynamic responses to adrenergic stimuli, we examined (a) responsiveness to norepinephrine (0.14 to 12.0 μg ˙ kg−1 ˙ min−1) in young (3‐mo‐old) and aged (9‐mo‐old) sham‐operated and portal‐hypertensive rats and (b) response to propranolol (2 and 10 mg ˙ kg−1 body wt), nitroglycerin (3.6 mg ˙ kg−1 ˙ min−1) or saline solution in aged portal‐hypertensive rats.

Pierpaolo Coni, Gabriella Simbula, Alessandra Carcereri de Prati, Marta Menegazzi, Hisanori Suzuki, Dittakavi S. R. Sarma, Giovanna M. Ledda‐Columbano, Amedeo Columbano – 1 June 1993 – The steady‐state levels of c‐fos, c‐jun and c‐myc messenger RNA were investigated in rat liver tissue after proliferative stimuli of different nature‐namely, compensatory regeneration induced by partial hepatectomy or carbon tetrachloride administration ‐ and direct hyperplasia induced by four different hepatomitogens: lead nitrate, ethylene dibromide, cyproterone acetate and nafenopin.

Gerda Rudolph, Richard Endele, Martin Senn, Adolf Stiehl – 1 June 1993 – Treatment of patients with cholestatic liver diseases with ursodeoxycholic acid has been shown to have beneficial effects that may be related to a shift in the balance between hydrophilic and hydrophobic bile acids in favor of hydrophilic bile acids. During treatment of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis with ursodeoxycholic acid, plasma concentrations of some endogenous bile acids decrease.