CLINICOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY OF ALCOHOLIC FIBROSIS

  • 1 January 1982
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 77  (9) , 660-666
Abstract
Among 112 patiens with alcoholic liver injury, 45 had alcoholic fibrosis. The incidence of alcoholic fibrosis was 40.2% which was the highest among varous types of alcoholic liver injury (fatty liver, 3.6%, alcoholic hepatitis, 2.7% and liver cirrhosis, 31.3%). Clinical features of alcoholic fibrosis were ilder than those of liver cirrhosis and more severe than those of fatty liver. The mean laboratory values in alcoholic fibrosis were significantly different from those in fatty liver and liver cirrhosis. The laboratory data were well correlated with the presence of pericellular fibrosis and thickening fo the terminal hepatic venule, but only partially with hepatic cell necrosis and not with fatty metamorphosis. Two patients with alcoholic fibrosis who developed cirrhosis without any clinical and histological features of hepatitis were observed during 5-yr follow-up. Alcoholic fibrosis was the most common type of alcholic liver injury in Japan and was an indendent clinicopathological entity distinct from the classical types of alcoholic liver injury. Pericellular fibrosis and thickening of the terminal hepatic venule which were the main histological features of alcoholic fibrosis may have played an important role in its transition to liver cirrhosis.