The biliary system plays an important role in several acquired and genetic disorders of the liver. We have previously shown that biliary duct epithelium contains cells giving rise to proliferative Lgr5+ organoids in vitro. However, it remained unknown whether all biliary cells or only a specific subset had this clonogenic activity. The cell surface protease ST14 was identified as a positive mar...

A 34-year-old female with a history of advanced pulmonary sarcoidosis and right-sided heart failure presented with chronic, postprandial right upper quadrant pain, and weight loss. Endoscopic biliary drainage was deemed to be the most appropriate therapeutic option for her chronic cholecystitis. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography utilizing the SpyGlass cholangioscopy system allowed ...

A 53-year-old male with adenocarcinoma of the rectum with metastasis to liver and porta hepatis region underwent biliary stenting due to aggressive distal common bile duct stricture. At the time of planned stent exchange, the guidewire could not be re-introduced, despite several techniques, including the SpyScope(®) system. A small fistula was noted by contrast fluoroscopy extending between pro...

There has been an increase in the number of reported cases of biliary neoplasm of the hepatobiliary system characterized by markedly dilated and multifocal papillary epithelial lesions of the bile ducts or cystic biliary lesions with or without mucin secretion, and mucinous lesions or tumors, possibly due to recent advances in radiological diagnosis. This lesion of the bile duct is believed to ...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the sonographic and color Doppler features of tumorlike biliary and venous changes in patients with cavernous transformation of the portal vein (CTPV). METHODS The sonographic studies of 24 patients with CTPV were reviewed. Sonographic evaluation of the biliary system included measurement of intrahepatic and extrahepatic biliary...

Intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma is a treatment refractory malignancy with a high mortality and an increasing incidence worldwide. Recent studies have observed that activation of Notch and AKT signaling within mature hepatocytes is able to induce the formation of tumors displaying biliary lineage markers, thereby raising the suggestion that it is hepatocytes, rather than cholangiocytes or hepati...

EXPERIMENTAL evaluation of ampicillin has proved that in animals this drug behaves like penicillin G in being rapidly excreted in high concentrations in the bile after oral, intramuscular and intravenous administration (Table I). The ratio of bile to blood (or serum) concentration varies with the species of animal, route of administration, dose, time and technique of sampling. However these res...

a 28-year-old, 32 week pregnant primigravida woman with a past history of increased blood pressure presented with ruq pain as well as sudden onset of hematemesis. this case illustrates the occurrence of a rare complication (rupture of portal vein pseudoaneurysm inside the biliary system), appearing as upper gastrointestinal bleeding in a pregnant woman. the cause of the rupture is presumably pr...

Liver transplantation (LT) is an established therapy for end-stage liver disease based on a substantial progress in surgical and immunological management of concomitant posttransplant phenomena. Apart from rejection and HCV-recurrence, the development of biliary strictures is one of the most serious complications observed after LT significantly affecting graft and patient survival [1, 2]. Frequ...

Cover pictures Left: MRI overview of the upper abdomen in the coronal plane. Right: Contrast-enhanced MRI of the biliary system using Gd-EOB-DTPA. Published articles have been reprinted with the permission of the copyright holder. To Linda and Gustav " Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do. " Robert A. Heinlein Abstract vii ABSTRACT There are two Gadoli...