Russell H. Wiesner – 1 May 1992 – Background. In primary biliary cirrhosis the hepatic lesions may result, at least in part, from the intracellular accumulation of potentially toxic endogenous bile acids. Preliminary work suggests that the administration of ursodiol (also called ursodeoxycholic acid), a hydrophilic bile acid without hepatotoxicity, leads to improvement in the condition of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.

Abraham P. Bautista, John J. Spitzer – 1 May 1992 – This study examines the generation of superoxide anion by the perfused rat liver after ethanol intoxication and acute endotoxemia to assess the potential importance of oxygen‐derived free radicals in the ethanol‐induced hepatic pathological condition. Hepatic superoxide anion production of 0.65 ± 0.06 nmol/min/gm liver weight was measured 1 hr after ethanol infusion; it reached a peak value of 0.8 ± 0.07 at 3 hr and was reduced to 0.11 ± 0.01 by 7 hr.

Hong‐Yuan Hsu, Mei‐Hwei Chang, Kue‐Hsiung Hsieh, Chin‐Yun Lee, Ho‐Hsiung Lin, Lih‐Hwa Hwang, Pei‐Jer Chen, Ding‐Shinn Chen – 1 May 1992 – Cellular immunity to HBcAg was studied in hepatitis B virus carrier children and neonates born to hepatitis B virus carrier mothers. A significant proliferative response of peripheral blood mononuclear cells to HBcAg was found in 5 of 10 children with elevated ALT levels but in none of the nine HBeAg‐positive children with normal ALT levels.

Paul Martin – 1 May 1992 – Objective: To determine the epidemiologic, clinical, serologic, and histologic importance of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti‐HCV) in blood donors.

Katriina Nikkilä, Krister Höckerstedt, Tatu A. Miettinen – 1 May 1992 – Serum noncholesterol sterols indicate overall cholesterol metabolism in a variety of experimental and clinical conditions. In patients with advanced primary biliary cirrhosis serum cholestanol, a 5ä‐derivative of cholesterol, is markedly increased, and cholesterol precursors, which are indicators of cholesterol synthesis, are clearly reduced, as is the ratio of plant sterols (campesterol/sitosterol).

Jean‐François Dufour, Christopher Stoupis, François Lazeyras, Peter Vock, François Terrier, Jürg Reichen – 1 May 1992 – Quantitative liver function tests are based on the clearance concept and measure the plasma disappearance of a test compound such as galactose. Metabolism is inferred to be predominantly hepatic, and usually no knowledge is obtained of the true time course of metabolite formation. Dynamic 31phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy after intravenous administration of fructose directly measures hepatic sugar metabolism.

Chia‐Ming Chu, King‐Wah Chiu, Yun‐Fan Liaw – 1 May 1992 – The prevalence and prognostic significance of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis were prospectively studied in a series of 82 acute hepatitis patients decompensated with ascites. The in‐hospital prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis was 31.7% (26 of 82 patients). Twenty cases were culture positive, including one with multiple isolates, and six cases were culture negative. E.

Akira Eguchi, Osamu Nakashima, Sadayuki Okudaira, Shigetaka Sugihara, Masamichi Kojiro – 1 May 1992 – The nodular lesions seen in the noncancerous areas of the 80 consecutively resected small hepatocellular carcinoma associated with cirrhosis were pathomorphologically studied. A total of 51 nodular lesions were found, and they were classified into the following four groups: large regenerative nodule (30 nodules), adenomatous hyperplasia (12 nodules), atypical adenomatous hyperplasia (4 nodules) and adenomatous hyperplasia containing cancerous foci (5 nodules).

Eldon A. Shaffer – 1 April 1992 – A 45‐minute infusion of an octapeptide of cholecystokinin (Kinevac; Squibb Diagnostics, New Brunswick, NJ) was used to measure the gallbladder ejection fraction during cholescintigraphy in 40 normal volunteers. Cholecystokinin cholescintigraphy was shown to be a reproducible test. The maximum mean gallbladder ejection fraction occurred 15 minutes after cholecystokinin infusion and was 74.5% ± 1.9% (mean ± SEM). A gallbladder ejection fraction >40% (mean – 3SD) was arbitrarily defined to be normal.

Michael A. Gerber – 1 April 1992