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Hepatorenal syndrome is a life-threatening medical condition that consists of rapid deterioration in kidney function in individuals with cirrhosis or fulminant liver failure. HRS is usually fatal unless a liver transplant is performed, although various treatments, including dialysis, can help over the short term. While HRS can affect individuals with cirrhosis (regardless of cause), severe alcoholic hepatitis, or fulminant hepatic failure, it usually occurs when liver function deteriorates rapidly due to an acute injury, such as an infection, bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract, or overuse of diuretic medications. HRS is a relatively common complication of cirrhosis, occurring in 18% of cirrhotics within one year of their diagnosis, and in 39% of cirrhotics within five years of their diagnosis. Deteriorating liver function is believed to cause changes in the circulation that supplies the intestines, altering blood flow and blood vessel tone in the kidneys. Two forms of hepatorenal syndrome have been defined: Type 1 HRS entails a rapidly progressive decline in kidney function, while type 2 HRS is associated with ascites that does not improve with standard diuretic medications. The risk of death in hepatorenal syndrome is very high; the mortality of individuals with type 1 HRS is over 50% over the short term, as determined by historical case series. The only long-term treatment option for the condition is liver transplantation. (more...)

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November 29: Liberation Day in Albania

• 1781 – The crew of the overcrowded British slave ship Zong killed 133 African slaves by dumping them into the sea in order to claim insurance.
• 1864 – American Indian Wars: A 700-man Colorado Territory militia attacked a village of Cheyenne and Arapaho, killing 133 Cheyenne and Arapaho men, women, and children.
• 1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrated the phonograph (pictured), his invention for recording and replaying sound, for the first time.
• 1890 – The Diet of Japan, Japan's bicameral legislature modelled after both the German Reichstag and the British Westminster system, first met after the Meiji Constitution went into effect.
• 1929 – American explorer Richard Evelyn Byrd and three others completed the first flight over the South Pole.
• 1987 – Korean Air Flight 858 exploded over the Andaman Sea after two North Korean agents left a time bomb in an overhead compartment, killing all 115 people on board.

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