Description
Springer Clinical Hepatology History · Present State · Outlook 1st Editon 2011 Softbound by G. Csomos, H. Thaler
Hepatology has come of age in the last decades. Biology of the liver has flour ished long before. As the largest homogeneous organ of the body the liver served as useful model in the development of biochemistry and related discip lines. Only gradually were these biological investigations applied to the clinical study of liver disease. This was particularly stimulated by the recognition that in the greater part of the world, the developing countries and what we now call the Third World, liver disease represents a major threat to overall public health. It leads to morbidity and mortality of persons in their productive years from liver cancer, cirrhosis and parasitic disease, particularly, schistosomiasis. Moreover, the growing emphasis on the social impact of diseases focused on disorders of the liver because malnutrition, poverty, and drug addiction contrib ute greatly to their spread. This is compounded by the increase of alcohol abuse, recently on the rise even in the developing countries. Concern with envi ronmental pollution has also raised the interest in liver diseases, in part because the liver acts as a guardian against polluting chemicals and in part because it is considered, possibly to an exaggerated degree, a vulnerable target of such chemicals. 1. History of Hepatology.- 2. Differential Diagnosis of Liver Diseases by Enzyme Patterns. A Historical Review.- 3. Functional Dissection of the Diseased Liver.- 4. Hepatic Drug Disposition in Liver Disease: Consequences for Dosage Adjustments.- 5. Biliary Lipids and Gallstone Formation.- 6. Current Concepts on Bilirubin Metabolism and Gilbert’s Syndrome.- 7. Protein Synthesis.- 8. The Position of Laparoscopy Among Methods Used in Differential Diagnosis of Chronic Liver Diseases.- 9. The Role of the Gallbladder and the Sphincter of Oddi in the Regulation of Enterohepatic Bile Acid Circulation and Biliary Lipid Secretion.- 10. Cultured Kupffer and Endothelial Cells from Human and Rat Livers — A New Means of Studying Viral Infections of the Liver.- 11. Liver Fibrosis: A Dynamic Process?.- 12. Liver Biopsy.- 13. Ultrastructural Pathology of the Human Liver.- 14. Immune Reactions in Liver Diseases.- 15. Viral Hepatitis — An Update.- 16. Vaccination Against Hepatitis B Virus: Past and Future Problems.- 17. Animal Models in Hepatitis Research.- 18. Present Status of Liver Transplantation.- 19. New Approaches to the Management of Portal Hypertension and Variceal Haemorrhage.- 20. Sclerotherapy of Oesophageal Varices by Means of Fibreendoscopy.- 21. Hepatic Encephalopathy.- 22. Cholestasis: A Problem.- 23. Alcoholic Hepatitis.- 24. Endotoxins and Alcoholic Hepatitis.- 25. Childhood Liver Diseases.- 26. Hepatocellular Carcinoma.- 27. Liver Damage Caused by Environmental Factors.- 28. Clinical Research and Statistics from an Ethical Point of View.- 29. The Development of Methods for Clinical Trials.- 30. Hepatology 2000.