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The Spectrum of Liver Disease in Alcoholism
Author(s) -
Bhathal P. S.,
Wilkinson Patricia,
Clifton Sheila,
Rankin J. G.,
Santamaria J. N.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 0004-8291
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-5994.1975.tb03255.x
Subject(s) - medicine , liver disease , disease , intensive care medicine , gastroenterology
Summary: Liver biopsies obtained from 100 alcoholic patients attending a clinic primarily for the management of their alcoholism, have been reviewed. The morphological appearances have been correlated with histories of alcohol consumption and with clinical and biochemical findings. There were 77 men and 23 women. Eight biopsies appeared normal, 62 showed fatty liver with or without fibrosis, 17 had alcoholic hepatitis with or without fibrosis and 13 had alcoholic hepatitis with established cirrhosis. Patients with fatty liver had drunk as long and as heavily as those with alcoholic hepatitis, suggesting that some other factor in addition to alcohol is of importance in the development of alcoholic hepatitis. Clinical and biochemical abnormalities showed no constant relationship to histological findings. Thus liver biopsy would seem to be an essential part of the full clinical assessment of the alcoholic patient.