This book is the proceedings of the Falk Symposium No. 137 on "Liver Diseases: Advances in Treatment and Prevention" (part of the XII International Falk Liver Week 2003 in honour of Hans Poppera (TM)s 100th birthday, held on October 17-19, 2003). It covers our present knowledge of the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of liver diseases, including hepatitis B, hepatitis C and delta hepatitis as well as alcoholic liver diseases, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and the hereditary liver diseases haemochromatosis, Wilsona (TM)s disease and alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. In addition to these clinical entities, the sequelae of liver cirrhosis and its complications, including the clinical management of ascites, the hepatorenal as well as the hepato- and porto-pulmonary hypertension syndrome are discussed. New developments with respect to liver support systems and liver transplantation are further highlights of the proceedings.

The main topics mentioned above are complemented by state-of-the-art chapters on "Hepatocellular Carcinoma," "Emerging Hepatitis Viruses" and "Fulminant Liver Failure" that are of interest to both basic scientists as well as clinicians. A special section is devoted to "Liver Histology" as a tribute to Hans Popper who contributed eminently to the basic and clinical aspects of hepatology.

All in all, Liver Diseases: Advances in Treatment and Prevention provides an exciting overview of the current developments in the treatment and prevention of viral, alcoholic, non-alcoholic and hereditary liver diseases, presented by an international faculty of outstanding scientists and clinicians.

Liver cirrhosis is a major clinical problem worldwide and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality from its complications, such as liver cell insufficiency with coagulopathy and hepatic encephalopathy, portal hypertension with ascites and gastrointestinal bleeding, hepatorenal syndrome, HCC development and others. This volume, the proceedings of Falk Symposium 115 held in Basel, Switzerland, October 22-24, 1999 (Part II of the Basel Liver Week 1999; XI International Congress of Liver Diseases) covers our present knowledge of the aetiologies and early stages of liver cirrhosis development. Based on this information, strategies are discussed that are aimed at the prevention, early diagnosis and therapy of chronic liver diseases, thus preventing their progression to cirrhosis and its complications, including HCC development. The main topics mentioned above are complemented by three state-of-the-art chapters on modern aspects of medicine in general and hepatology in particular as well as their perspectives beyond the year 2000: `Molecular Medicine', `New Hepatitis Viruses' and `Genetic Liver Diseases: Diagnosis and Therapy'. Introductory chapters focusing on the more basic aspects of the biology of live cells as well as on the mechanisms underlying fibrogenesis, cholestasis and inflammation will be followed by a detailed discussion of the clinically most important causes of liver cirrhosis worldwide: hepatitis viruses B, C and D; toxins (alcohol, drugs and others) as well as metabolic liver diseases (haemochromatosis, Wilson disease, alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency, porphyria cutanea tarda and protoporphyria). This book, therefore, will interest clinically oriented basic scientists as well as those in clinical practice, givng an update on many aspects of modern hepatology and its perspectives in the next millennium.

The liver is of central importance to the entire organism due to its diverse functions in metabolism, its ability to detoxify and excrete, the hepatic formation and inactivation of mediators, and its involvement in non-specific defence mechanisms. Thus, extrahepatic manifestations of liver disease are often decisive for the disease course. In the last few years, knowledge about interaction between the liver and other organs or systems - e.g. kidneys, GI tract, skeleton, endocrine, haematopoietic and nervous sytems - has increased considerably. Thus many extrahepatic manifestations of liver disease can now be better understood and are more accessible to diagnosis and therapy. The IXth International Congress on Liver Diseases brought together experts from around the world to give information on new developments in this field which are important both for research and clinical work. These proceedings will therefore be required reading for all researchers and clinicians dealing with effectsof liver diseases on the entire organism.

The advent of molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology has profoundly changed contemporary medicine. These new scientific tools have made it possible to identify and understand pathological mechanisms at cellular, subcellular and molecular levels which has added previously unimaginable novel dimensions to the diagnosis, therapy and prevention of a rapidly increasing number of diseases of the liver and biliary system. The title of this book - Acute and Chronic Liver Diseases: Molecular Biology and Clinics - expresses this epochal progress in hepatology. A series of acute or chronic diseases of the liver has been chosen whose modern clinical management most eloquently reflects the impact of the new scientific insight gained from molecular biology. The book, the proceedings of the 87th Falk Symposium (X International Congress of Liver Diseases: Part II of the Basel Liver Week 1995) held in Basel, Switzerland, October 19-21, 1995, first presents an overview of the molecular pathology of the chosen disease, followed by discussions of the clinical inference which this new scientific information entails for diagnosis, management and therapy. This approach is expected to ease the readers' endeavour to connect basic to clinical science and to facilitate appreciation of the enormous progress but also the inherent limitations and arising questions which modern molecular biology has brought to clinical medicine.