Robert M. Merion, Darrell A. Campbell – 1 September 1991 – Surgical reduction of donor livers to treat small children has been performed successfully in several centers. While this procedure improves the allocation of livers, it does not increase the organ supply. We have extended reduced‐size orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) to treat 18 patients with 9 livers, accounting for 26% of our transplants during a 10‐month period and have evaluated the results. In 18 split liver OLTs, patient survival was 67% and graft survival was 50%.

Gerald M. Fleischner, Rachel Morecki, Takamasa Hanaichi, Hisao Hayashi, Nelson Quintana, Irmin Sternlieb – 1 September 1991 – A 56‐yr‐old woman with long‐standing rheumatoid arthritis exhibited jaundice, pruritus and abdominal discomfort after 8 yr of periodic gold sodium thiomalate injections amounting to a cumulative dose in excess of 2.5 gm. Histopathological examination of the liver biopsy specimen showed submassive loss of parenchyma, collapse of reticulin and mixed cellular inflammatory infiltrates.

Jürg Reichen, Thomas Widmer, Jacques Cotting – 1 September 1991 – We retrospectively analyzed the predictive accuracy of serial determinations of galactose elimination capacity in 61 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. Death was predicted from the time that the regression line describing the decline in galactose elimination capacity vs. time intersected a value of 4 mg · min−1 · kg−1. Thirty‐one patients exhibited decreasing galactose elimination capacity; in 11 patients it remained stable and in 19 patients only one value was available.

Milton G. Mutchnick, Henry D. Appelman, H. T. Chung, Emma Aragona, Tej P. Gupta, Glen D. Cummings, Jeanne G. Waggoner, Jay H. Hoofnagle, David A. Shafritz – 1 September 1991 – Chronic hepatitis B is a severe and frequently progressive disease. We assessed the safety and efficacy of thymosin fraction 5 and thymosin‐α1 in a prospective, placebo‐controlled trial in 12 patients with chronic hepatitis B. All patients had histological and biochemical evidence of active liver disease for at least 6 mo before treatment and were positive for serum hepatitis B virus DNA and HBsAg.

Michael H. Nathanson, James L. Boyer – 1 September 1991

Ruth Joplin, J. Gordon Lindsay, Stefan G. Hubscher, Gerald D. Johnson, Jean C. Shaw, Alastair J. Strain, James M. Neuberger – 1 September 1991 – The reason for the close association between primary biliary cirrhosis and the appearance of antibodies that recognize the E2 component of pyruvate dehydrogenase complex is not understood.

Yoshinobu Nagato, Fukuo Kondo, Yoichiro Kondo, Masaaki Ebara, Masao Ohto – 1 September 1991 – Among 597 patients with nodular hepatic lesions who underwent ultrasonically guided needle biopsy, 305 were histologically confirmed as having hepatocellular carcinoma, and 37 patients had borderline lesions.

Toshiyuki Ohno, Ramzi Sabra, Robert A. Branch – 1 September 1991 – Recently it was suggested that the onset of sodium retention in experimental cirrhosis in rats is related to a critical threshold of hepatic function, as assessed by the aminopyrine breath test. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether sodium retention occurred after two‐thirds hepatectomy in rats and to investigate the relationship between sodium retention and changes in hepatic function associated with liver regeneration in this model.

Spyros Dourakis, Peter Karayiannis, Robert Goldin, Michael Taylor, John Monjardino, Howard C. Thomas – 1 September 1991 – The presence of hepatitis delta virus genomic RNA and hepatitis delta antigen was investigated in woodchuck liver and extrahepatic tissues by in situ hybridization using synthetic radiolabeled probes, Northern‐blot analysis and immunohistochemical staining for hepatitis delta antigen. Hepatitis D virus RNA and hepatitis delta antigen were detected in the nuclei of infected hepatocytes but in none of the other tissues examined.

Alexander S. Petrides, Livio Luzi, Adrian Reuben, Caroline Riely, Ralph A. Defronzo – 1 September 1991 – Clinically stable patients with cirrhosis demonstrate insulin resistance with regard to glucose metabolism. However, much less is known about the two major factors, insulin and plasma amino acid concentration, that regulate protein metabolism in cirrhotic patients. To examine this question, we performed paired euglycemic insulin clamp studies in combination with 14Cleucine and indirect calorimetry.