Yasuni Nakanuma, Motoko Sasaki – 1 August 1989 – The distribution of blood group‐related antigens (A, B, H, Leb) in the intrahepatic biliary tree and hepatocytes was studied by immunoperoxidase techniques. In normal livers, large and septal bile ducts expressed A and B antigens in the cases with comparable blood groups and also expressed H antigen frequently in the cases with blood group O, A or B, and infrequently in the cases with AB. Lea and Leb were found in biliary cells at any level in secretors.

Zvi Ackerman, Moshe Y. Flugelman, Yohanan Wax, Daniel Shouval, Micha Levy – 1 August 1989 – Fifty‐six per cent of 118 young adults observed during a recent measles epidemic had some disturbance on liver function tests. Five per cent developed overt jaundice. Patients treated for fever with paracetamol were found to have significantly higher rates of transaminase impairment compared to those treated with dipyrone. Sixty‐five and 58% of patients given paracetamol had elevated ALT and AST levels, respectively.

Giulio Marchesini, Gianpaolo Bianchi – 1 August 1989 – Fourteen normal controls, eleven patients with non‐alcoholic cirrhosis, twenty‐nine with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and six with HCC and hypoglycemia were studied. The tests performed include iv glucose tolerance test (25 g) and glucagon challenge test (2 mg). In cirrhosis, glucose intolerance and insulin resistance were demonstrated. The fasting hyperinsulinemia in cirrhosis is the result of decreased degradation as shown by the normal fasting C‐peptide.

M. Sawkat Anwer – 1 August 1989

T. Tulassay, Z. Tulassay, W. Rascher, P. Ginès, V. Arroyo – 1 August 1989

Charles D. Surh, Thomas E. Roche, Dean J. Danner, Aftab Ansari, Ross L. Coppel, Thomas Prindiville, E. Rolland Dickson, M. Eric Gershwin – 1 August 1989 – Antimitochondrial autoantibodies are characteristically present in sera of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. The antimitochondrial autoantibodies recognize four major antigens from beef heart mitochondria at relative molecular weights of 74, 56, 52 and 48 kD.

Ljusk Siw Eriksson, Harold O. Conn – 1 August 1989

I. R. Wanless – 1 August 1989 – Nodular regenerative hyperplasia (NRH), a rare hyperplastic condition of the liver, is reported in two patients with primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). The first patient was a 26‐year‐old man who died of PPH and showed multiple NRH without cirrhosis of the liver. The second patient was a 25‐year‐old man who had a PPH with pulmonary arterial thrombi and NRH of the liver. NRH has been described in association with immune disease, hematopoietic disorder, and diabetes mellitus, so that NRH with PPH is considered to be very rare.

Klaus Knyrim, Nimish Vakil, Rudolf Pfab, Meinhard Classen – 1 August 1989 – The importance of calcium in gallstone formation is increasingly recognized. Calcium carbonate is an important constituent of gallbladder stones and may be present in the nidus of cholesterol stones. Secondary deposition of calcium carbonate on the surface of cholesterol gallstones is an important reason for failure of oral bile acid dissolution therapy. We sought to determine the effects of bile acids on the crystallization conditions of calcium carbonate in bile.

Maurizia Rossana Brunetto, Filippo Oliveri, Giuseppe Rocca, Domenico Criscuolo, Elisabetta Chiaberge, Maria Capalbo, Ezio David, Giorgio Verme, Ferruccio Bonino – 1 August 1989 – The course of chronic hepatitis B was studied in 30 patients who had antibody to hepatitis e antigen and hepatitis B virus DNA in the serum and hepatitis B core antigen in the liver. Over a 2‐year period, no patient experienced a sustained spontaneous remission of disease, and follow‐up liver histology revealed worsening of the disease in four patients.