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Sixty-three patients with degree III or IV esophageal varices and the so-called red color sign, but without previous bleeding were randomly assigned to either prophylactic sclerotherapy (PST) (n = 30) or to a control group (n = 33). In 58 cases the portal hypertension was caused by liver cirrhosis (40% alcoholics). The two groups were comparable with respect to demographic data and endoscopic appearance, causes and severity of liver damage. Sclerotherapy was performed as combined intra-and paravariceal injections of 2 or 3% polidocanol. All patients, both in the treatment and in the control groups, who bled from varices after randomization, received sclerotherapy until the varices were eradicated, and remained in their groups. After a mean follow-up of 44.5 months, the bleeding rate in the PST group was significantly lower (30% vs 75%, p less than 0.01). The difference became significant from the second year onward. Fourteen patients of the PST group and 19 of the controls died (4 and 14, respectively, p less than 0.05 as a result of the bleeding). Life table analysis (Kaplan-Meier) revealed no differences in survival between the two groups. At the present time PST cannot yet be recommended as a method for clinical routine use.

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SUMMARYBased on the positive therapeutic results with ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, in whom we observed a clinical improvement in conjunction with the normalization of the low pretreatment dipeptidyl peptidase (DPIV, CD26) expression of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL), we hypothesized that the very low DPIV expression in AIDS patients could be positively in¯uenced by UDCA. Four young male AIDS patients were therefore treated with 750 mg of UDCA for 4 months. The low CD26 expression (2±8% of the PBL versus 18±28% in healthy controls) at the beginning of the study rose to 10±16% after UDCA therapy. Simultaneously we observed a two-tothree-fold elevation of the absolute number of lymphocytes as well as a slight increase of CD4 cells. These effects were similar in all examined patients. Further investigations should be conducted on this potentially bene®cial effect of UDCA.