Yang‐Te Tsai, Fa‐Yauh Lee, Han‐Chieh Lin, Ting‐Tsung Chang, Chii‐Shyan Lay, Sun‐Sang Wang, Chi‐Woon Kong, Shou‐Dong Lee, Kwang‐Juei Lo – 1 September 1989 – We conducted a randomized controlled hemodynamic study to evaluate the effect of placebo and 20 mg isosorbide‐5‐mononitrate, a long‐acting organic nitrate, in 19 patients with HBsAg‐positive cirrhosis by the simultaneous measurement of portal venous pressure and wedged hepatic venous pressure. Baseline values for the two groups were similar.

Patrick Marcellin, Denis Ouzan, Françoise Degos, Christian Brechot, Etienne‐Henri Metman, Claude Degott, Michelle Chevalier, Pierre Berthelot, Christian Trepo, Jean‐Pierre Benhamou – 1 September 1989 – Twenty‐two heterosexuals and 21 homosexuals with chronic active hepatitis B and who had HBsAg, HBeAg and hepatitis B virus DNA in serum were randomized separately to receive adenine arabinoside monophos‐phate or placebo. In the 10 heterosexuals and nine homosexuals who received placebo, no change in hepatitis B virus DNA level and HBeAg was observed.

Richard J. Chernick, Pavel Martasek, Richard D. Levere, Raimund Margreiter, Nader G. Abraham – 1 September 1989 – Heme oxygenase, the rate‐limiting enzyme for heme degradation, can be inhibited by several new synthetic metalloporphyrins. Under certain conditions, a depression in heme oxygenase activity has important clinical significance in the treatment of hyperbilirubinemia, and, in this regard, tin‐protoporphyrin has been shown to decrease the production of bilirubin in vitro as well as in vivo.

Josep Terés – 1 September 1989 – Sengstaken‐Blakemore tamponade is used for the initial control of bleeding esophageal varices (BEV), although it is known to be potentially dangerous. Sclerotherapy has been shown to be effective in the treatment of BEV. This trial has been designed to evaluate comparatively the effectiveness of both procedures in the initial control of the hemorrhage.

Yoshihiro Akahane, Fumio Tsuda, Makoto Mayumi – 1 September 1989

Ricardo Mastai, Jaime Bosch, Jordi Bruix, Miguel Navasa, David Kravetz, Juan Rodés – 1 September 1989 – In patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, propranolol administration reduces heart rate and cardiac output and diminishes portal pressure and collateral eral blood flow. However, there is little information on the possible effects of propranolol on hepatic artery blood flow. The present study addressed this question in 12 cirrhotic patients with end‐to‐side portacaval shunt, in whom all of the liver blood flow represents the hepatic artery blood flow.

Jane C. Caldwell‐Kenkel, Robert T. Currin, Yukio Tanaka, Ronald G. Thurman, John J. Lemasters – 1 September 1989 – Storage of donor livers in Euro‐Collins solution for human transplantation surgery is limited to about 8 hr. Here, tissue damage to isolated rat livers stored under the same conditions as human livers was characterized following reperfusion.

Herbert Krell, Eberhard Dietze – 1 September 1989 – Responses of isolated perfused rat liver to leukotriene C4 were studied in order to assess the mechanisms involved in leukotriene‐mediated liver injury. Infusion of leukotriene C4 (11 and 44 pmoles per min per gm liver weight) into the portal vein resulted in a rise in portal pressure, a decrease in oxygen consumption, an increase in hepatic glucose and lactate efflux and lactate/pyruvate ratio in the perfusate and a small decrease in bile flow.

Inmaculada Azorín, María‐Dolores Miñana, Vicente Felipo, Santiago Grisolía – 1 September 1989 – Rats were fed a standard diet or the standard diet supplemented with ammonium acetate (20% w/w) for up to 100 days. The effect of the ingestion of the high‐ammonium diet on some aspects of nitrogen metabolism in rats was studied. Ammonia levels in blood increased ≈3‐fold; in brain, liver and muscle the increases were 36, 34 and 50%, respectively. Urea levels in blood and urea excretion increased ≈2‐fold. There was no increase of carbamyl phosphate synthase.

Herbert L. Bonkovsky – 1 September 1989 – Effects of iron were studied in cultured chick embryo liver cells to help elucidate the effect of hepatic iron in the human disease porphyria cutanea tarda and in toxic porphyria caused by chemicals.