Impaired human gallbladder lipid absorption in cholesterol gallstone disease and its effect on cholesterol solubility in bile.

Background & Aims: The role of the gallbladder in gallstone pathogenesis is still unclear. We examined the effects of gallbladder mucosal lipid absorption on lipid composition and cholesterol crystallization in bile.

Methods: The in vitro-isolated, intra-arterially perfused gallbladder model was used (1) to compare the absorption rates of lipids from standard bile by gallbladders obtained from 7 patients with cholesterol gallstones and 6 controls; and (2) to measure the microscopic cholesterol crystal detection time in cholesterol-enriched pig bile before and after lipid absorption by the pig gallbladder.

Glucose intolerance and insulin resistance in cirrhosis are normalized after liver transplantation.

Cirrhosis is often associated with insulin resistance and glucose intolerance. We evaluated if these alterations are restored by liver transplantation (LT). Glucose tolerance (oral glucose tolerance test [OGTT]), peripheral insulin sensitivity (euglycemic insulin clamp technique), glucose oxidation (indirect calorimetry), nonoxidative glucose disposal, and insulin secretion (hyperglycemic clamp technique) were measured in 6 patients (Group 1) before and 6 months after LT, in 12 patients (Group 2) who underwent LT 6 to 30 months previously, and in 6 healthy individuals (controls).

Clotting activation after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt.

Background And Aim: Aim of the study was to investigate the behaviour of clotting system in peripheral circulation of cirrhotic patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent shunt (TIPS).

Methods: Clotting variables and endotoxemia were measured 48 h and 30 days after TIPS in patients randomised to receive heparin or not.

Results: Forty-eight hours after TIPS, a significant increase of prothrombin fragment F1+2 was observed; such increase was less evident in patients given heparin.