Inorder to study the combined effect of end-to-side portacaval shunt and chronic liver damage on biliary organic anion transport, the rat model of thioacetamide-induced chronic liver injury was utilized. Compared with sham-operated animals, bile flow and maximal biliary excretion (Tm) of sulfobromophthalein sodium (BSP) was decreased in rats 9 weeks after shunt operation. If rats with shunts were treated for 8 weeks with thioacetamide, an agent causing hepatic fïbrosis and pseudolobule formation, BSP transport from the hepatocyte into bile was further diminished. Compared with the shunted controls, the thioacetamide-treated rats with shunts had elevated serum bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase concentrations, and on electron microscopy their livers had dilated bile canaliculi with a decreased number of microvilli. Non-shunted rats treated with thioacetamide for 8 weeks had similar but less severe changes in the canalicular ultrastructure. Bile flow and BSP Tm were not influenced by thioacetamide treatment alone, perhaps due to the marked liver hypertrophy in these animals. These results indicate that canalicular active transport of organic anions is more sensitive to the effect of thioacetamide in animals with portacaval shunts than in those with sham operations. A similar impairment of hepatic organic anion handling by hepatotoxic compounds might be the consequence of portasystemic shunts in patients with liver cirrhosis.

In a double-blind, prospective, randomized trial, 63 patients with actively bleeding gastric erosions were treated with somatostatin (31 patients) or secretin (32 patients). Both drugs were administered by intravenous infusions for 48 or 72 h. The active bleeding and the effect of the therapy was endoscopically established. Somatostatin had a significantly (p < 0.05) better effect on the control of bleeding (29 vs. 23 patients), transfusion requirements (5.8 vs. 7.4 units, p < 0.01) and on the need of surgery (1 vs. 6 patients, p < 0.01). The mortality and the rebleeding rate did not differ between the two groups. The results show that somatostatin is more effective than secretin in the control of active bleeding form gastric erosions.

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A tanulmány a Kék-Níluson épülő Nagy Etióp Újjászületés Gát (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – GERD) kapcsán kiéleződött ellentéteket vizsgálja. Egyiptom rohamosan növekvő lakossága és a Nílus vizére való szinte teljes ráutaltsága miatt mereven ragaszkodik korábbi, nemzetközi szerződésekben rögzített kvótájához. Etiópia a vízhozam felosztásának számára kedvezőbb és általa igazságosabbnak tekintett, újabb rendszerét szeretné megteremteni. A bizonyos esetekben már-már fegyveres konfliktus kirobbanásának lehetőségével fenyegető érdekellentétek feloldására több nemzetközi megoldási kísérlet történt. Ezek sikertelensége miatt még nagyon távolinak tűnik a végleges, minden érdekelt fél számára elfogadható megoldás.