Leroy Shear – 1 February 1990 – Fifty‐seven cirrhotic patients with intractable ascites had a portosystemic shunt. In 35 patients, a peritoneovenous shunt had previously failed. Forty‐six patients were in Pugh's class B and 11 were in class C. There were three operative deaths (5.3%). Fifty‐three (98.2%) of the 54 survivors were cleared of ascites. In one patient, ascites persisted because of postshunt heart failure that resulted in a marked increase of caval pressure. Twenty‐seven patients (50%) had late encephalopathy, which was severe and disabling in 12 (22%).

Claudio Tiribellp, J. Donald Ostrow – 1 February 1990

1 February 1990

Toshiaki Nakashima, Atsushi Sano, Yoshifumi Seto, Toshikazu Nakajima, Toshihide Shima, Yoshikuni Sakamoto, Tadao Okuno, Kei Kashima, Takeshi Hasegawa – 1 February 1990 – Urinary bile acids from 20 patients treated with chenodeoxycholate, 18 treated with ursodeoxycholate, 15 treated with rifampicin and 8 patients with advanced cirrhosis were analyzed by gas‐liquid chromatography and gas‐liquid chromatography‐mass spectrometry.

Wim P. M. Hopman, Jan B. M. J. Jansen, Gerd Rosenbusch, Cornelis B. H. W. Lamers – 1 February 1990 – To determine the role of cholecystokinin and the cholinergic system in intestinal stimulation of gallbladder contraction, we studied the effects of atropine on plasma cholecystokinin and gallbladder contraction in six healthy volunteers (four men and two women aged 20 to 27 yr). Effects were noted after intraduodenal fat instillation and after dosage with exogenous cholecystokinin inducing plasma cholecystokinin concentrations similar to those after intraduodenal fat instillation.

Michael C. Kew, Ernest Song, Abdullah Mohammed, John Hodkinson – 1 February 1990 – The role of contraceptive steroids in the etiology or pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma in urban South African black women was investigated in a hospital‐based case and control study. Participating were 46 women, 19 to 54 yr old, with carcinoma, and 92 matched controls. South African blacks have a high incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma, and urban black women have used contraceptive steroids fairly widely for a number of years.

Y. Edward Hsia – 1 February 1990 – Genetic disorders were identified infrequently among children presenting with Reye's syndrome in the past. During a two‐year period, we evaluated four consecutive patients referred for intensive care of Reye's syndrome. A standard investigation for inborn errors of metabolism revealed that two patients had enzymatic defects of fatty acid oxidation, and the other two had partial deficiencies of ornithine transcarbamoylase. None had experienced a previous episode of Reye's syndrome, and three of the four had been entirely healthy in the past.

Patrick Campbell, Jerry N. Thompson, J. Robert E. Fraser, Torvard C. Laurent, HåKan Pertoft, Lennart Rodén – 1 February 1990 – The activity of N‐acetylglucosamine‐6‐phosphate deacetylase, a key enzyme in the pathway of N‐acetylglucosamine catabolism, was measured in hepatocytes, Kupffer cells and sinusoidal endothelial cells from rat liver and cultured human skin fibroblasts. Kupffer cells and endothelial cells had similar high levels of deacetylase activity that were more than twice the level observed in fibroblasts.

Marcus Sellinger, Carolyn Barrett, Phillipe Malle, Ellen R. Gordon, James L. Boyer – 1 February 1990 – Controversy exists concerning the localization of the enzyme Na+, K+‐ATPase to canalicular membranes in hepatocytes. Most studies find enzyme activity only at the basolateral plasma membrane domain of the hepatocyte. However, Na+, K+‐ATPase activity has been detected recently in a canalicular membrane fraction prepared by Mg++ precipitation, suggesting that differences in membrane domain fluidity account for these discrepancies.

R. Thomas Holzbach – 1 February 1990