Adolf Stiehl, Richard Raedsch, Gerda Rudolph, Ursula Gundert‐Remy, Martin Senn – 1 May 1985 – In patients with hepatobiliary diseases, considerable amounts of sulfated and glucuronidated bile acids are excreted in urine. Information on the biliary excretion of these compounds is lacking. We used an intestinal perfusion method to determine the biliary excretion of sulfated and glucuronidated bile acids in eight patients with alcoholic cirrhosis and moderately severe cholestasis and compared results with urinary excretion rates.

Guadalupe Garcia‐Tsao, Roberto J. Groszmann, Rosemarie L. Fisher, Harold O. Conn, Colin E. Atterbury, Morton Glickman – 1 May 1985 – This study was performed to examine the relationships between portal pressure measurements and the presence of esophagogastric varices, the size of varices and the occurrence of hemorrhage from varices in 93 patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, using standardized measurements of portal pressure by hepatic vein catheterization.

Josefina Felisart, Antoni Rimola, Vicente Arroyo, Rosa M. Perez‐Ayuso, Enrique Quintero, Pere Gines, Joan Rodes – 1 May 1985 – We compared the effectiveness and incidence of nephrotoxicity of ampicillin‐tobramycin and cefotaxime in 73 cirrhotics who had severe bacterial infection. Most of these patients had spontaneous peritonitis and/or bacteremia. Patients were randomly allocated into two groups. Group I included 36 patients treated with ampicillin‐tobramycin and Group II comprised 37 patients treated with cefotaxime.

Seikoh Horiuchi, Yukio Kamimoto, Yoshimasa Morino – 1 May 1985 – Rat liver aspartate aminotransferase (AAT) (EC 2.6.1.1) exists in two isozymic forms, cytosolic (c‐AAT) and mitochondrial (m‐AAT). The previous study (Kamimoto, Y. et al., Hepatology an accompanying paper in this issue) demonstrated that these isozymes were cleared from blood at different half‐lives via adsorptive endocytosis by sinusoidal liver cells. To understand the cellular mechanism for the differential uptake of the isozymes, we have further studied in vivo uptake of 125I‐labeled AAT isozymes by sinusoidal cells.

Henry W. Kao, Neal E. Rakov, Evelyn Savage, Telfer B. Reynolds – 1 May 1985 – Large volume paracentesis, while effectively relieving symptoms in patients with tense ascites, has been generally avoided due to reports of complications attributed to an acute reduction in intravascular volume. Measurements of plasma volume in these subjects have been by indirect methods and have not uniformly confirmed hypovolemia.

Gilles Pomier‐Layrargues, Daniel Kusielewicz, Bernard Willems, Jean‐Pierre Villeneuve, Denis Marleau, Jean Cǒté, P.‐Michel Huet – 1 May 1985 – The simultaneous measurement of wedged hepatic vein pressure (WHVP) and portal vein pressure (PVP) was performed in 156 cirrhotic patients. In the 110 alcoholic cirrhotic patients (97 micronodular and 13 macronodular cirrhosis), WHVP and PVP were closely related (25.8 ± 6.3 vs. 25.9 ± 6.3 mm Hg; p = not statistically significant). The difference between the two parameters was greater than 4 mm Hg in only six patients.

James German – 1 May 1985

1 May 1985

Adriaan Brouwer, Roel J. Barelds, Dick L. Knook – 1 May 1985 – There are many indications that the functional capacity of the reticuloendothelial system (RES) declines with age. The aim of this study was to investigate the cellular basis of age‐related changes in the clearance function of the RES. The experiments were focused mainly on Kupffer and endothelial cells of the liver which represent a major part of the RES and are primarily responsible for clearance of colloidal material from the circulation.

Gaetano Cairo, Lidia Bardella, Luisa Schiaffonati, Aldo Bernelli‐Zazzera – 1 May 1985 – Ischemia of rat liver is followed by recovery or cell death. Since heat shock proteins may be essential to cell survival under stress, we determined levels of heat shock proteins in liver after different periods of blood deprivation and correlated the results with cellular recovery. Cell‐free synthesis by poly (A+)‐mRNA and polysomes revealed 70 and 89 kd proteins which appear similar to proteins produced by the liver of rats with amphetamine‐induced hyperthermia.