The method of hot trichloroacetic acid extraction was proved to be simple and reliable for the determination of serum collagen-like protein. Serum collagen-like protein behaved as a macromolecular form by a gel filtration analysis and migrated electrophoretically in the β∼γ-globulin region. Serum levels of collagen-like protein increased in chronic liver disease, especially in chronic active hepatitis. Serum levels of collagen-like protein did not correlate to the morphological grade of hepatic fibrosis. Studies on biopsy liver specimens, labelled with ¹⁴C proline in vitro, could not confirm but might suggest that the specific radioactivities of hepatic collagen reflected serum levels of collagen-like protein.

During the last 6 years, 205 patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were admitted to our surgical departments. Thirty-eight had HCC smaller than 3 cm in diameter. There were 34 men and 4 women with an average age of 56.5 years. All patients had underlying hepatic disease: liver cirrhosis in 35 patients and chronic active hepatitis with fibrosis in the remaining 3. Pre-operative complications included: oesophageal varices in ten, cholelithiasis in five, peptic ulcer in two, gastric cancer in one, and severe hypersplenism in one instance. A radical resection was performed in 32 cases and palliative resection in 6. Simultaneous operations were carried out for the above mentioned associated conditions: distal splenorenal shunt in six, Hassab's devascularization procedure in one, splenectomy in one, cholecystectomy in four, cholecystolithotomy in one, and partial gastrectomy in one. Four patients had postoperative complications: liver failure, rebleeding, right haemothorax, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding from acute mucosal lesion of the stomach. One patient with liver failure died in coma within 1 month. The operative and in-hospital mortality rates were 2.6 and 7.9 per cent, respectively. Survival rates during the first 4 years in 32 patients with radical hepatic resection were 89.9, 67.2, 58.8, and 58.8 per cent, respectively. We suggest that hepatic resection should be the first choice of treatment for minute HCC even in the presence of liver cirrhosis.

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The effect of short-term treatment of anabolic steroid on the patients with compensated liver cirrhosis was assessed by the study on the hepatic protein synthesis in vitro. The results indicated that the treatment decreased the specific activity of hepatic trichloroacetic acid soluble fraction and increased that of hepatic trichloroacetic acid ethanol soluble fraction. Clinical studies resulted in an improvement of serum protein pattern and BSP retention, but no effect on hepatic histology. The effect of anabolic steroid on chronic liver disease was analytically discussed.