Phenotypes of Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis and Differential Diagnosis.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a heterogenous immune-mediated disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and stricturing of the bile ducts. Though the driving pathophysiologic mechanisms remain elusive, there are several observed clinical phenotypes of the disease. The distribution of bile duct involvement, presence of concomitant inflammatory bowel disease, significant infiltration of IgG4-positive plasma cells, and overlapping features with other autoimmune disease has significant implications for prognosis and treatment.

The evolving paradigm of alcohol-associated hepatitis and liver transplantation.

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Living Liver Donation Does not Significantly Affect Long-Term Life, Disability, or Medical Insurability.

Introduction: The growing practice of living liver donation requires comprehensive understanding of the financial implications for living liver donors. While obtaining and maintaining insurance is important to financial health, little is known about the impact of liver donation on future insurability.

Research Questions: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the donors' experiences with insurance following donation and identify the insurance provider-driven factors that contribute to donor insurability.

Differential IgG4-Producing Plasma Cell Infiltration in Non- and Post-Transplant Plasma Cell Hepatitis.

Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), post-transplant recurrent AIH (rAIH), and plasma cell-rich rejection (PCR) are clinical diagnoses with the shared histopathologic hallmark of plasma cell hepatitis (PCH). As these histologically and serologically indistinguishable diagnoses are differentiated by clinical context, it remains uncertain whether they represent distinct immunologic phenomena. Improved understanding of immunoglobulin subclass 4-producing plasma cells (IgG4-PC) has brought attention to IgG4 as an immunophenotypic biomarker.

Transfusion-free Retransplantation for Post-liver Transplantation Hepatic Artery Thrombosis: How Much Augmentation Is Too Much?

Liver transplantation presents unique challenges in patients who do not accept blood transfusions. The difficulty of balancing chemical augmentation and handling the technical difficulty of the surgery make transfusion-free liver transplantation an exception rather than the norm. However, at our center, we have performed 27 successful living donor liver transplants in transfusion-free patients.

Gender-Specific Risk Factors for Reflux Esophagitis in a Predominantly Hispanic Population of a Large Safety-Net Hospital.

Background: Defining factors associated with severe reflux esophagitis allows for identification of subgroups most at risk for complications of strictures and esophageal malignancy. We hypothesized there might be unique clinical features in patients with reflux esophagitis in a predominantly Hispanic population of a large, safety-net hospital.

Aim: Define clinical and endoscopic features of reflux esophagitis in a predominantly Hispanic population of a large, safety-net hospital.

Image-based β-adrenergic sweat rate assay captures minimal cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator function.

Background: There is a need to prognosticate the severity of cystic fibrosis (CF) detected by newborn screening (NBS) by early assessment of CF transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein function. We introduce novel instrumentation and protocol for evaluating CFTR activity as reflected by β-adrenergically stimulated sweat secretion.

Methods: A pixilated image sensor detects sweat rates.