Progress in Liver Disease

Whether or not the Australia antigen represents a virus remains to be established; nonetheless, identification of this antigen in the serum of hepatitis patients constitutes a fascinating development that may, hopefully, presage eradication of transfusion-induced hepatitis. Other recent developments discussed by the 51 contributors to Popper and Schaffner's book range from hepatic culture and transplantation to umbilical vein catheterization and phototherapy. Intense blue light, according to Hsia and Porto, decomposes the bilirubin in icteric serum and sometimes controls neonatal jaundice. They caution, however, against an ill effect from the degradation products. Reporting on another development, Chiandussi tells how to catheterize the umbilical vein. Umbilico-portal catheterization, he notes, permits selective splenic and portal phlebography, measurement of direct portal venous pressure, and decompression of the portal bed during hemorrhage from esophageal varices. He also notes that a physician can use the transumbilical catheter to infuse chemotherapeutic agents directly into a cancerous liver.