OCCURRENCE OF ACCUMULATION OF FAT IN THE LIVER AND ITS RELATION TO EXCESS WEIGHT GAIN IN PATIENTS CONVALESCING FROM VIRAL HEPATITIS

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Abstract
A study of the occurrence of deposition of hepatic fat was made in 144 soldiers having acute or persistent viral hepatitis. Serial liver biopsies were performed on admission and six weeks after the onset of symptoms in the first group (39 patients), and the second group (89 patients) were subjected to biopsy at an average of 13 weeks after symptoms developed. A significant degree of fat accumulation was noted in approximately half the patients in both groups. Patients exhibiting liver fat on biopsy had gained twice as much weight as those with no fat up to the time of biopsy, at both acute and chronic stages of the disease. The presence of fat in the liver was not associated with the severity of hepatitis, alcohol intake or parasitic infestation. The amount of fat present was not sufficient to impair liver function significantly. However, its occurrence is abnormal and total caloric intake should be reasonably restricted during the therapy of infectious hepatitis, so that obesity and liver fat deposition do not appear. Fatty livers were found as frequently in a third group of patients treated with vitamin B-12 as in a control series given placebo therapy.