Patients awaiting liver transplantation who also suffer from other medical problems may face poorer survival after transplantation. These comorbid problems, which include coronary disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), connective tissue disease and renal insufficiency, have been incorporated into a new modified comorbidity index which helps predict post-transplant survival.

A high fat diet may kill regulatory T cells in the liver, allowing steatosis (simple fatty liver) to develop into steatohepatitis (fatty liver with inflammation), according to the results of a new study in the November issue of Hepatology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Medically-complicated obesity is a societal problem that needs to be solved. Liver disease, specifically non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH, is just one of the many complications of increased body weight.

Moderate to severe chronic liver disease can be predicted with the use of diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI), according to a recent study conducted by researchers at New York University Medical Center in New York, NY.

The outcome of hepatitis is either self recovery or its development into liver fibrosis or, further, liver cirrhosis. Liver fibrosis is the early pathological process of cirrhosis, which is considered a reversible, wound-healing response.

The diffusion of hepatitis C virus infection worldwide is astonishing. Liver cirrhosis is present in at least 10-20% of these infected patients, with highly increasing health care and emotional costs. In patients with compensated (early stage) hepatitis C virus-related cirrhosis, antiviral combined therapy offers an interesting rate of response, ending in viral clearance.

Newer ultrasound and magnetic resonance (MR) imaging tests yield encouraging initial results in diagnosing fibrosis (scarring) and cirrhosis of the liver, according to three studies in the October issue of the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Diets rich in rapidly-digested carbohydrates not only expand waistlines, but may also cause fatty liver, a condition that can lead to liver failure and death, finds a new study in mice. If confirmed in humans, the findings suggest that fatty liver disease – on the upsurge among Americans as a byproduct of the obesity epidemic – may be preventable and possibly treatable through dietary changes. The study appears in the September issue of the journal Obesity.

Researchers provide new details about the inner workings of a parasitic worm that causes a tropical disease called schistosomiasis, which leads to itchy skin, fever, chills, muscle aches, and liver disease that, in some cases, can be fatal.

Non-Caucasian patients seeking medical care for primary biliary cirrhosis have more severe liver disease compared to Caucasian patients, a new study has found. The reasons for this disparity are not clear, say the authors.

Administering inhaled nitric oxide (NO) during surgery helps protect liver transplant patients from organ failure, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

Touching stories of living donor transplantation are continuously happening in hospitals. One of these stories is reported recently in the August 14 issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology because of its shining significance in hepatology. This article is going to bring comfort to many families.