Factors Determining Liver Damage in Chronic Alcoholics

Abstract

Eghöje, K. N. & Juhl, E. Factors determining liver damage in chronic alcoholics. Scand. J. Gastroent. 1973, 8, 505-512.

Among patients in a consecutive series comprising 347 chronic alcoholics who in the course of a 3-year period were admitted to a department of internal medicine, biopsies from the liver revealed cirrhosis in 60 cases and normal liver morphology in 29. Patients in these two groups were compared. Patients with cirrhosis were, on an average, older than those in whom the liver morphology remained normal (54 and 46 years, respectively) while the distribution according to sex, occupation, schooling, trade, taxable income did not differ in the two groups. There were significantly more cirrhotic cases among those alcoholics with a constant daily alcohol consumption, among those with a daily intake of ethanol exceeding 125 g, and among those with an abuse of more than 10 years’ duration. Any difference in types of alcoholic beverages taken by the patients in the two groups was not demonstrable. The present investigation indicates that the main reason why some chronic alcoholics develop cirrhosis, while the liver remains a normal histology in others, has to be found in the difference of the extent and duration of their alcohol abuse. Any clues suggesting that other factors may be involved in the development of alcoholic cirrhosis have not been found.

Key-words::

• Alcoholism
• alcoholic cirrhosis
• liver morphology