1 November 1989

Henny G. Peltenburg, Wim T. Hermens, George M. Willems, J. Guus Flendrig, Ellen Schmidt – 1 November 1989 – Pathological elevations of the plasma activities of liver enzymes are not simply related to the quantitative release of such enzymes from the liver. Several enzymatic indices, such as the well‐known de Ritis quotient, may be determined by differences in the time course of hepatic enzyme release, rather than reflecting true differences in the released quantities of various enzymes.

Simon Bar‐Meir, David Chamovitz – 1 November 1989 – Sphincter of Oddi (SO) dysfunction is a recognised cause of postcholecystectomy pain, but a difficult condition to diagnose, requiring endoscopic biliary manometry (EBM) to confirm sphincter motor abnormalities. We have assessed quantitative cholescintigraphy in 19 postcholecystectomy (PC) patients with clinical and manometric evidence of SO dysfunction, 10 PC patients with non‐biliary type abdominal pain and 10 asymptomatic PC volunteers acting as controls to determine its value as a non‐invasive screening test.

Harold O. Conn, Owen Epstein – 1 November 1989 – In ninety families with at least one proven case of Wilson's disease, seen over 32 years, all close relatives were examined and “presymptomatic” disease was diagnosed in 30.11 had one or more abnormal physical signs when examined and 7 of these had Kayser Fleischer rings. In a further 10 patients the abnormalities of copper metabolism were so pronounced as to leave no doubt as to the diagnosis.

Renee C. Lin, Lawrence Lumeng – 1 November 1989 – We have previously reported the detection of a 37 kD liver protein‐acetaldehyde adduct in rats fed alcohol chronically with the AIN'76 diet. It was surprising that only one liver protein‐acetaldehyde adduct was found. In this report, we have tried to detect additional protein‐acetaldehyde adducts by electroimmunotransblot with rabbit anti‐hemocyanin‐acetaldehyde adduct IgG and to further characterize the 37 kD liver protein‐acetaldehyde adduct.

Yohko K. Shimizu, Robert H. Purcell – 1 November 1989 – We previously described a cytoplasmic antigen, detected by monoclonal antibodies, in hepatocytes of chimpanzees experimentally infected with the parenterally transmitted form of non‐A, non‐B hepatitis virus or with the hepatitis delta virus. The expression of this antigen appears to be a host‐specified response to infection with these two hepatitis viruses but not with hepatitis A virus, hepatitis B virus or enterically transmitted non‐A, non‐B hepatitis virus.

Jens H. Henriksen – 1 November 1989 – Methionine enkephalin and catecholamines were measured in carefully collected plasma samples from 25 patients with cirrhosis and ascites, and 25 with cirrhosis without ascites, 15 disease and 15 healthy controls. Methionine enkephalin was invariably raised in the ascites group, the median value being 4.6–6.9 times that of the other three groups. Similarly, in the ascites group, median noradrenaline was increased 2.5–4.2 and median adrenaline 1.8–2.5 times that of the other groups.

Timothy J. Hearn, Anton E. Coleman, James C. K. Lai, Owen W. Griffith, Arthur J. L. Cooper – 1 November 1989 – L‐Carnitine (16 mmoles per kg, injected intraperitoneally) is reported to protect mice against subsequent injection of ammonium acetate given at the unprotected LD100. The present studies in rats show a variable protective effect of L‐carnitine (16 mmoles per kg) administered 1 hr prior to an LD100 dose of ammonium acetate. Survival ranged from 100% to 35%.

Kunio Okuda, Hector Orozco, Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, Takeshi Takahashi – 1 November 1989

N. C. Nayak – 1 November 1989