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When a patient presents with end stage liver disease or liver failure he or she may be considered for a liver transplantation. The first step in this is often a rigorous assessment and being placed on a waiting list.
Program on Medicine and Religion selects faculty scholars

Program on Medicine and Religion selects faculty scholars

The University of Chicago Medicine's Program on Medicine and Religion has selected its second round of faculty scholars whose focus will be on the relationship between a physician's spirituality and their ability to deal with the pressures of practicing medicine. [More]
HCV screening of prison inmate drug users: an interview with Dr. Arthur Kim, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

HCV screening of prison inmate drug users: an interview with Dr. Arthur Kim, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Prisoners overall have a very high rate of past or present injection drug use, which is a major risk factor for HCV infection due to repeated exposures to needles. [More]

Study: Biologic response modifying drugs can cause acute liver injury

A commonly used class of biologic response modifying drugs can cause acute liver injury with elevated liver enzymes, according to a new study in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, the official clinical practice journal of the American Gastroenterological Association. [More]
Bucksbaum Institute of Clinical Excellence conducts second annual symposium on April 26

Bucksbaum Institute of Clinical Excellence conducts second annual symposium on April 26

Jerome Lowenstein, MD, founder and director of the Program for Humanistic Aspects of Medical Education at New York University, will be the keynote speaker at the Bucksbaum Institute of Clinical Excellence's second annual symposium on Friday, April 26. [More]
Calcipotriol drug offers a potential treatment option for fibrotic diseases

Calcipotriol drug offers a potential treatment option for fibrotic diseases

Liver fibrosis results from an excessive accumulation of tough, fibrous scar tissue and occurs in most types of chronic liver diseases. In industrialized countries, the main causes of liver injury leading to fibrosis include chronic hepatitis virus infection, excess alcohol consumption and, increasingly, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). [More]

Living liver donors at risk from life-threatening “near-miss” events?

A study published in Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the International Liver Transplantation Society, reports that donor mortality is about 1 in 500 donors with living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). [More]
Genetic study defines link between primary sclerosing cholangitis and other autoimmune diseases

Genetic study defines link between primary sclerosing cholangitis and other autoimmune diseases

Researchers have newly associated nine genetic regions with a rare autoimmune disease of the liver known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). This brings the total number of genetic regions associated with the disease to 16. [More]
Research findings describe specific profile of patients with ACLF

Research findings describe specific profile of patients with ACLF

In this prospective study, led by Dr Richard Moreau, INSERM Research Director (Mixed Research Unit 773 "Centre de Recherche biom-dicale Bichat-Beaujon"; INSERM/Universit- Paris Diderot) who is also a practitioner attached to the Hepatology Department of the Beaujon Hospital (AP-HP), researchers studied a cohort of 1343 patients from 12 European countries. [More]
New research shows safety can be improved for people participating in medical experiments

New research shows safety can be improved for people participating in medical experiments

In almost 90 per cent of cases, novel drugs tested on humans by pharmaceutical companies do not work as intended and must be scrapped. Often the drugs do not work, while at worst, test subjects die. New research from the University of Southern Denmark now shows that this number can be reduced. [More]

New hospital gown blends style for patient with clinical function

The drafty backside is finally gone, replaced with comfort, warmth and dignity in a newly designed hospital gown that blends style for the patient with clinical function for the health care team. [More]
Abstracts on Bristol-Myers Squibb's research in liver disease accepted for presentation

Abstracts on Bristol-Myers Squibb's research in liver disease accepted for presentation

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company announced today that 14 abstracts on the Company's research in liver disease have been accepted for presentation at The International Liver CongressTM 2013, the 48th annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, in Amsterdam, April 24 - 28. [More]

Liver transplants worth risk for people who have genetic liver conditions, study finds

Patients faced with the diagnosis of a life-threatening liver disease have to consider the seriousness of having a liver transplant, which can be a definitive cure for many acquired and genetic liver diseases. [More]
Understanding ethics involved in selecting transplant candidates

Understanding ethics involved in selecting transplant candidates

Results from an anonymous survey of U.S. transplant providers report that incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses, particularly suicide attempts, may lower patients' eligibility for liver transplantation. [More]
Patients’ eligibility for liver transplantation may be lowered by incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses

Patients’ eligibility for liver transplantation may be lowered by incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses

Results from an anonymous survey of U.S. transplant providers report that incarceration, marijuana use, and psychiatric diagnoses, particularly suicide attempts, may lower patients’ eligibility for liver transplantation. [More]
Blocked bile ducts can be effectively treated with metal stents

Blocked bile ducts can be effectively treated with metal stents

A multi-center analysis, led by Weill Cornell Medical College and published in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, shows the use of temporary "fully covered self-expanding metal stents" (FCSEMS) can effectively fix a painful and potentially life-threatening benign biliary stricture -- a severely blocked or narrowed bile duct. [More]
AAP, ACMG release guidelines on best practices for genetic testing and screening of children

AAP, ACMG release guidelines on best practices for genetic testing and screening of children

For the first time, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) spoke with one voice and released a set of recommendations and guidelines on best practices for genetic testing and screening of children. [More]
Chicago's poorest neighborhoods to experience demand for additional primary care doctors

Chicago's poorest neighborhoods to experience demand for additional primary care doctors

Some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods are expected to see the greatest demand for additional primary care doctors in 2014, as the Affordable Care Act boosts the number of newly insured patients seeking medical services, a new study has found. [More]
Antioxidant boosts liver transplant outcomes

Antioxidant boosts liver transplant outcomes

Infusion of N-acetylcysteine in liver donors can significantly improve the outcome of transplantation, research shows. [More]

Donated liver survival rate improved by antioxidant

Researchers from Italy have found that the antioxidant, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), when injected prior to harvesting of the liver, significantly improves graft survival following transplantation. Results published in the February issue of Liver Transplantation, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), suggest that the NAC effect on early graft function and survival is higher when suboptimal organs are used. [More]
FDA approves Novartis’ Zortress to prevent organ rejection after liver transplantation in adults

FDA approves Novartis’ Zortress to prevent organ rejection after liver transplantation in adults

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zortress (everolimus) for the prophylaxis of organ rejection in adult patients receiving a liver transplant. [More]