Main description:

In Drugs and the Liver: High Risk patients and Transplantation, leading physicians, hepatologists, pharmacologists, pathologists and transplant surgeons discuss the most recent advances in the field of liver disease and their treatment. Attention is focused on epidemiology, the diagnosis of disease (clinical chemistry, histopathology, medical imaging analysis), prognosis, prediction, and clinical management. Pathogenesis of diseases such as liver cirrhosis following viral disease or alcohol abuse are discussed at length, and special attention is dedicated to high risk patients (children, fulminant hepatitis). The other major topics include terminal liver failure, for which transplantation is now routine. The latter is discussed in depth, starting from the organ donor management, organ evaluation and preservation, new surgical techniques, post-transplant patient follow-up including side effects of immunosuppression, and reports of the latest drugs used to prevent rejection.

Contents:

1. Risk assessment in liver transplantation focus on lung function; M. Langer. 2. Biochemical basis of hepatic ischemic/reperfusion injury; J.L. Gollan. 3. Donor rating and assessment of pretransplant prognosis by use of the MEGX test; M. Oellerich. 4. Significance of cyclosporine pharmacokinetics in liver transplantation; J. Grevel. 5. Cyclosporin toxicity and liver transplantation in high risk patients; D. Galmarini. 6. Drug treatment in liver transplanted patients; antihypertensitive therapy; G. Leonetti. 7. Bacteremia after liver transplantation; a few issues in selection of antibiotics for treatment and prophylaxis; S. Kusne. 8. Antiviral drugs; F. Dianzani. 9. The use of antiviral drugs in liver transplant patients; T. Wreghitt. 10. Drugs, fetal liver and reproduction; P.V. Grella. 11. Reproduction after transplantation; V. Scantlebury. 12. Reproduction after liver transplantation for B-virus hepatitis; G. Rossi. 13. 24-hour hypothermic preservation of rat liver with euro-collins and UW solutions. Comparative evaluation by 31P NMR spectroscopy, biochemical assays and light microscopy; P.J. Cozzone. 14. ATP content during the ischemic period as an indicator of liver viability. A phosphorus-31 NMR study; J.-L. Gallis. 15. Drugs and liver disease; S. Sherlock. 16. Liver disease and anticancer drug treatment; G. Powis. 17. Pharmacokinetics of anticancer agents in patients with impaired liver function; M. D'Incalci. 18. Pathogenesis and treatment of alcoholic liver disease; C.S. Lieber. 19. Liver fibrogenesis in chronic viral and alcoholic liver disease; G. Annoni. 20. Hepatocellular carcinoma; M. Colombo. 21. Treatment of iron dependent chronic liver disease; G. Fiorelli. 22. Liver transplantation for chronic liver disease; D.H. Van Thiel. 23. Practical uses of OKT3; C.O. Esquivel. 24. Histopathology of acute liver rejection (ALR) in OKT3 treated patients; B. Gridelli. 25. Spin-spin relaxation times as viability parameter of liver transplantation grafts. Investigation on a pig model; P. Holzmuller. 26. Urinary 6-B hydroxycortisol as a predictor of cyclosporine blood levels; D. Samuel. 27. Elucidation of the metabolic pathways of cyclosporin in vitro by human liver microsomes; U. Christians. 28. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy and hepatotoxicity of cyclosporin A in orthotopic liver transplantation; P. Palazzi. 29. Effect of FK 506 and cyclosporins on model membranes studied by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; L. Rossaro. Index.