Susan Webb, David Kravetz, Jaume Bosch, John A. H. Wass, Joan Evans, Ramon Gomis, Lesley H. Rees, Joan Rodes – 1 January 1983 – Experimental data suggest that somatostatin is metabolized by both liver and kidneys. Results in humans are conflicting. By studying a group of cirrhotic patients with surgically induced end‐to‐side portacaval shunts, basally and during a somatostatin infusion, we have been able to analyze separately the hepatic and splanchnic metabolism of this peptide. After catheterization, samples were obtained from the pulmonary artery, portal and hepatic veins.

Charles S. Davidson – 1 January 1983

1 January 1983

1 January 1983

Patricia L. Marion, Susan S. Knight, Felix H. Salazar, Hans Popper, William S. Robinson – 1 January 1983 – Twenty‐four adult Beechey ground squirrels persistently infected with the hepatitis B virus‐related ground squirrel hepatitis virus (GSHV) remained infected with high levels of viral surface antigen (GSHsAg) and virion‐associated DNA polymerase activity in the blood for over 2 years in captivity.

Richard K. Fuller, Charles L. Hoppel – 1 January 1983 – Carnitine is essential for the oxidation of fatty acids. The liver is a major site of fatty oxidation. To determine if there are alterations in plasma carnitine in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, we measured plasma carnitine and its metabolites by a specific radioenzymatic method in 20 men with hepatic cirrhosis and 30 healthy volunteers. We found total carnitine, free carnitine, short‐chain acylcarnitines, and long‐chain acylcarnitines to be significantly elevated in the cirrhotic subjects.

Mark D. Cohen, Lewis J. Rubin, Wayne E. Taylor, Jennifer A. Cuthbert – 1 January 1983 – A patient with both extrahepatic portal hypertension and primary pulmonary hypertension is reported. The pulmonary hypertension developed without a surgical portal‐systemic shunt, and at autopsy there was no evidence of a large spontaneous shunt. This association of pulmonary arterial hypertension and portal venous hypertension without either intrinsic liver disease or a large portal‐systemic anastomosis has not been reported previously.

Merrill C. Johnson – 1 January 1983

Pierre‐Michel Huet, Jean‐Pierre Villeneuve – 1 January 1983 – The effects of alterations of the hepatic blood flow, the intrinsic clearance, and the anatomy of the portal circulation on drug disposition were investigated in 53 cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension using indocyanine green (ICG) and lidocaine as model drugs. ICG disposition was studied by sampling from an artery and one hepatic vein following i.v. injection, with determination of systemic and intrinsic clearances and hepatic blood flow. Lidocaine disposition was studied following i.v.

Yasuni Nakanuma, Goroku Ohta – 1 January 1983 – The number of granulomas and loosely arranged epithelioid cell foci in wedge liver biopsy specimens of 39 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis were counted and correlated with other hepatic lesions. Granulomas and cell foci were present in 76.9 and 87.2% of the patients, respectively; their numbers varied greatly from case to case (mean ± S.D.: 2.4 ± 3.4 per cm2 and 4.7 ± 5.5 per cm2 of liver section; range: 0 to 18.5 per cm2 and 0 to 23.3 per cm2, respectively) and decreased as bile duct loss progressed.