Percutaneous liver biopsy--2 decades of experience in a public hospital in the South of Brazil.

Introduction: Liver biopsy is a complementary method for diagnosis, staging and therapeutic guidance in liver diseases, where chronic viral hepatitis are the most acknowledged causes for the indication of histopathological study. The objective is to assess the patients' profile as well as the indication and results of percutaneous liver biopsies in a tertiary hospital.

Material And Methods: A descriptive, cross-section study was carried out through the review of medical charts (retrospective cohort) of patients submitted to blind percutaneous liver biopsies (PLB) at a hospital in Porto Alegre, South Brazil, from October 1993 to December 2011.

Whipple's disease: rare disorder and late diagnosis.

Whipple's disease is a rare systemic infectious disorder caused by the bacterium Tropheryma whipplei. We report the case of a 61-year-old male patient who presented to emergency room complaining of asthenia, arthralgia, anorexia, articular complaints intermittent diarrhea, and a 10-kg weight loss in one year. Laboratory tests showed the following results: Hb = 7.

Sensitivity to microcystins: a comparative study in human cell lines with and without multidrug resistance phenotype.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is an obstacle in cancer treatment. An understanding of how tumoral cells react to oxidants can help us elucidate the cellular mechanism involved in resistance. Microcystins are cyanobacteria hepatotoxins known to generate oxidative stress.