Deane F. Mosher – 1 November 1986

G. S. Tint – 1 November 1986 – A two‐year‐old boy presented with severe failure to thrive, developmental delay, anemia, hepatosplenomegaly, central cataracts, and dysmorphic features. Quantitative analyses of urinary organic acids revealed massive excretion of mevalonic acid, a metabolic precursor of cholesterol and nonsterol isoprenes: 46,000 to 56,200 mmol per mole of creatinine, as compared with 0.2 to 0.3 mmol per mole in normal children. The mevalonic acid concentration in plasma was also greatly increased at 440 μmol per liter (normal, <0.05).

Bernardo Buitrago, Hans Popper, Stephen C. Hadler, Swan N. Thung, Michael A. Gerber, Robert H. Purcell, James E. Maynard – 1 November 1986 – Stimulated by observations in an outbreak of hepatitis δ‐virus infection among Yucpa Indians in Venezuela, in which unusual histologic features were found, we studied 100 cases of fatal hepatitis from Colombia, South America, which had been obtained by autopsy or viscerotomy. These cases were considered to be “Santa Marta hepatitis,” or “hepatitis of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta,” which has been observed in this region for more than 40 years.

Antonina Smedile, Mario Rizzetto, Katherine Denniston, Ferruccio Bonino, Frances Wells, Giorgio Verme, Fausto Consolo, Bill Hoyer, Robert H. Purcell, John L. Gerin – 1 November 1986 – Hepatitis D virus is a defective human pathogen that requires hepatitis B virus for its replication. A hybridization‐based assay for the 1.75 kb RNA genome of hepatitis D virus was developed using as probe a radiolabeled transcript of a cloned cDNA fragment (pKD3 hepatitis D virus DNA).

Yohko K. Shimizu, Robert H. Purcell, John L. Gerin, Stephen M. Feinstone, Yasushi Ono, Toshio Shikata – 1 November 1986 – To further investigate the specificity of the monoclonal antibodies (48‐1 and S‐1) associated with non‐A, non‐B hepatitis, extensive immunofluorescence studies were performed on liver biopsy specimens from chimpanzees with experimental hepatitis A, B, non‐A, non‐B or δ, or from normal chimpanzees.

Anne‐Marie Steffan, Jean‐Louis Gendrault, Robert S. McCuskey, Patricia A. McCuskey, André Kirn – 1 September 1986 – Impairment of the phagocytic capacities of Kupffer cells, as is found in Frog Virus 3 hepatitis of mice, allows the endothelial liver cells to take up intravenously inoculated latex particles of 1.0 μm diameter. In vitro experiments with cultivated endothelial cells isolated by collagenase perfusion of the liver and purified by centrifugal elutriation demonstrate that uptake occurs via a typical mechanism of phagocytosis involving pseudopodia.

Jean‐Pierre Villeneuve, Claire Infante‐Rivard, Michel Ampelas, Gilles Pomier‐Layrargues, P.‐Michel Huet, Denis Marleau – 1 September 1986 – The aminopyrine breath test has been proposed as a quantitative test of hepatic function, but its long‐term prognostic value in patients with cirrhosis has not been determined. The aim of this study was to examine the usefulness of the aminopyrine breath test in assessing prognosis and to compare it with traditional methods of evaluating liver function.

Anastacio M. Hoyumpa – 1 September 1986

Maud I. Cleton, Erik J. Frenkel, Willem C. de Bruijn, Joannes J. M. Marx – 1 September 1986 – The amounts of phosphorus and iron in various isolated ferritin preparations were investigated by: (i) chemical analysis on ferritin samples and (ii) electron probe X‐ray microanalysis on ferritin particles from the same preparations. A high correlation was found between iron to phosphorus ratios obtained by both methods.

Fumio Nomura, Hitoshi Hatano, Kunihiko Ohnishi, Bunshiro Akikusa, Kunio Okuda – 1 September 1986 – In order to evaluate the clinical implication of experimental studies on halothane‐induced liver damage in phenobarbital‐treated rats, we studied the clinical records of 315 consecutive patients who underwent brain surgery with halothane anesthesia. After exclusion of subjects with a history of alcoholism or antecedent chronic liver disease, clinical data of 279 patients with normal preoperative transaminase activities were analyzed.