Harold O. Conn – 1 June 1990 – Fifty patients with non‐cirrhotic portal fibrosis who were admitted to hospital because of upper gastrointestinal bleeding were randomly assigned to treatment with either oral propranolol given in does that reduced the resting pulse rate by 25% (25 patients) or with a placebo (25 patients). One year after the start of the study 20 patients in the propranolol group and five patients in the placebo group were free from recurrent gastrointestinal bleeding (p < 0.0001).

Rebecca Dersimonian – 1 June 1990 – The authors undertook a meta analysis of nine randomized clinical trials (RCTs) in which modified amino acid solutions that contained supplemental amounts of branched‐chain amino acida (BCAA) were compared with other forms of therapy of hepatic encephalopathy (HE). When five RCTs were pooled, analysis showed highly significant improvement in the degree of HE (p < 0.001). Various interpretations of the data gave similar reslts. The mortality data differed so widely in these RCTs that pooling of the data could not be meaningfully performed.

Donald L. Kaminski, Hootan Daneshmand, Philip Dean, Yashwant G. Deshpande – 1 June 1990 – Current information suggests that arachidonic acid metabolites are involved in the development of cholecystitis. The purpose of this study was to evalute eicosanoid formation during the development of experimental cholecystitis in cats. Lysophosphatidylcholine is found in the gallbladders of patients with cholecystitis and is known to be a cytolytic, membrane damaging substance. Anesthetized cats underwent gallbladder perfusion with and without 1.5 mmol/L lysophosphatidylcholine.

Chantal Marteau, Bernard Sastre, Nicola Iconomidis, Henri Portugal, Anne‐Marie Pauli, André Gérolami – 1 June 1990 – Samples of gallbladder bile obtained from 25 controls and 34 patients with pigment (28 cases) or cholesterol (6 cases) gallstones were studied to establish whether disturbances in regulation of the biliary pH are likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of gallstones. Samples were assayed for pH, Pco2 and concentrations of sodium, bicarbonate and calcium (total and ionized). Saturation of bile in calcium carbonate was calculated.

Kirsten D. Bentsen, Jens H. Henriksen, Flemming Bendtsen, Kim Hørslev‐Petersen, Ib Lorenzen – 1 June 1990 – Splanchnic and renal extraction of circulating aminoterminal propeptide of type III procollagen and related antigens were studied in 12 patients with normal liver function and in 19 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis during catheterization.

1 June 1990

Hussein Mousa Atta, J. Michael Henderson, Ricardo Mastai, Jaime Bosch – 1 June 1990

Richard E. Hernandez – 1 June 1990

Jaw‐Ching Wu, Shou‐Dong Lee, Sugantha Govindarajan, Hwa‐Chen Lin, Pesus Chou, Yan‐Jenn Wang, Shoou‐Yih Lee, Yang‐Te Tsai, Kwang‐Juei Lo, Ling‐Pai Ting – 1 June 1990 – Multivariate analysis of the risk factors for hepatitis D virus infection among 53 men with acute hepatitis D virus superinfection, 59 men with acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B and 54 asymptomatic male hepatitis B carriers revealed that sexual contact with prostitutes and use of nondisposable needles were the factors significantly associated with hepatitis D virus infection in Taiwan (odds ratio = 5.5, 95% confidence

Raymond D. Dubois – 1 June 1990