The Model for End-Stage Liver Disease 3.0: An Update Without Proven Accuracy

Cellular mechanisms in basic and clinical gastroenterology and hepatolog

Identification of a protein encoded in the EB-viral open reading frame BMRF2

Using monospecific rabbit sera against a peptide derived from a potential antigenic region of the Epstein-Barr viral amino acid sequence encoded in the open reading frame BMRF2 we could identify a protein-complex of 53/55 kDa in chemically induced B95-8, P3HR1 and Raji cell lines. This protein could be shown to be membrane-associated, as predicted by previous computer analysis of the secondary structure and hydrophilicity pattern, and may be a member of EBV-induced membrane proteins in lytically infected cells

A dynamical model for correlated two-pion-exchange in the pion-nucleon interaction

A microscopic model for the $N\bar N\to\pi\pi$ process is presented in the meson exchange framework, which in the pseudophysical region agrees with available quasiempirical information. The scalar ($\sigma$) and vector ($\rho$) piece of correlated two--pion exchange in the pion--nucleon interaction is then derived via dispersion integrals over the unitarity cut. Inherent ambiguities in the method and implications for the description of pion--nucleon scattering data are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 11 postscript figure

Towards an understanding of isospin violation in pion-nucleon scattering

We investigate isospin breaking in low-energy pion-nucleon scattering in the framework of chiral perturbation theory. This work extends the systematic analysis of [1] to the energy range above threshold. Various relations, which identically vanish in the limit of isospin symmetry, are used to quantify isospin breaking effects. We study the energy dependence of the S- and P-wave projections of these ratios and find dramatic effects in the S-waves of those two relations which are given in terms of isoscalar quantities only. This effect drops rather quickly with growing center-of-mass energy.Comment: 12 pp, REVTeX, 8 figs, FZJ-IKP(TH)-2000-2

Low Energy Pion-Hyperon Interaction

We study the low energy pion-hyperon interaction considering effective non-linear chiral invariant Lagrangians including pions, rho mesons, hyperons and corresponding resonances. Then we calculate the S- and P-wave phase-shifts, total cross sections, angular distributions and polarizations for the momentum in the center-of-mass frame up to k=400 MeV. With these results we discuss the CP violation in the csi-> pi-lambda and omega-> pi-csi weak decays.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

\pi\pi, K\pi and \pi N potential scattering and a prediction of a narrow \sigma meson resonance

Low energy scattering and bound state properties of the \pi N, \pi\pi and K\pi systems are studied as coupled channel problems using inversion potentials of phase shift data. In a first step we apply the potential model to explain recent measurements of pionic hydrogen shift and width. Secondly, predictions of the model for pionium lifetime and shift confirm a well known and widely used effective range expression. Thirdly, as extension of this confirmation, we predict an unexpected medium effect of the pionium lifetime which shortens by several orders of magnitude. The \sigma meson shows a narrow resonance structure as a function of the medium modified mass with the implication of being essentially energy independent. Similarly, we see this medium resonance effect realized for the K\pi system. To support our findings we present also results for the \rho meson and the \Delta(1232) resonance.Comment: 42 pages, 17 PS figures, REFTeX, epsfig.sty needed, submitted to Phys. Re

Joint modeling of liver transplant candidates outperforms the model for end-stage liver disease: the effect of disease development over time on patient outcome

Liver function is measured regularly in liver transplantation (LT) candidates. Currently, these previous disease development data are not used for survival prediction. By constructing and validating joint models (JMs), we aimed to predict the outcome based on all available data, using both disease severity and its rate of change over time. Adult LT candidates listed in Eurotransplant between 2007 and 2018 (n = 16 283) and UNOS between 2016 and 2019 (n = 30 533) were included. Patients with acute liver failure, exception points, or priority status were excluded. Longitudinal MELD(-Na) data were modeled using spline-based mixed effects. Waiting list survival was modeled with Cox proportional hazards models. The JMs combined the longitudinal and survival analysis. JM 90-day mortality prediction performance was compared to MELD(-Na) in the validation cohorts. MELD(-Na) score and its rate of change over time significantly influenced patient survival. The JMs significantly outperformed the MELD(-Na) score at baseline and during follow-up. At baseline, MELD-JM AUC and MELD AUC were 0.94 (0.92-0.95) and 0.87 (0.85-0.89), respectively. MELDNa-JM AUC was 0.91 (0.89-0.93) and MELD-Na AUC was 0.84 (0.81-0.87). The JMs were significantly (p < .001) more accurate than MELD(-Na). After 90 days, we ranked patients for LT based on their MELD-Na and MELDNa-JM survival rates, showing that MELDNa-JM-prioritized patients had three times higher waiting list mortality.Transplant surger