Alcoholic liver disease in the 1980s

A review of systematic and quantifiable methods of estimating the needs of a community for alcohol treatment services

The purpose of this paper was to review a variety of systematic and quantifiable methodologies for planning and evaluating the provision of alcohol treatment services for communities. These methods include: (a) developing and evaluating indicators of alcohol-related harm in and across defined geographic areas, to assess the relative need for services; (b) demand-oriented techniques that involve the prediction of future demand for services based on the previous utilisation of treatment facilities; (c) comprehensive systems approaches to planning services; and (d) the estimation of the prevalence of individuals who need or would benefit from an intervention for their alcohol problem. In practice, service planners may incorporate a combination of approaches that could be compared and contrasted to assess the convergent validity of results. These methodologies can also be used to provide information for planning and evaluating prevention/health promotion and early intervention initiatives.

Psychiatric aspects of liver disease

This paper reviews the literature on the effects of liver disease on mental health, a topic which has been relatively neglected in the recent psychiatric literature. It discusses both the encephalopathy which may be associated with liver disease of almost any type and the psychological consequences of specific liver disorders. Also considered are the effects of liver disease on sexual function; the relationship between alcohol and hepatic disorder in causing mental disturbance; the effects of childhood liver disease; psychiatric aspects of liver transplantation; and the use of psychotropic drugs in patients with hepatic dysfunction.

Profile of alcoholic liver disease in an Indian hospital. A prospective analysis

To study the profile of alcoholic liver disease in India, 144 consecutive, histologically diagnosed patients were prospectively studied. The patients were divided into those having alcoholic fatty liver (AFL) (Gr. I, n = 32), alcoholic hepatitis (AH) (Gr. II, n = 42) and alcoholic cirrhosis (AC) (Gr. III, n = 70) on the basis of their histological findings. All the patients were males, those with fatty liver being younger than those with cirrhosis. The amount of alcohol consumed by patients with AFL, AH and AC was not significantly different. Similarly, the duration of alcohol consumption was not significantly different between the three groups of patients. The clinical features of the patients were quite similar to those reported from the West, except that AH was relatively milder in our patients. Intake of poor quality country liquor was quite common (60%), but its use was not found to be associated with more severe liver injury as compared with the use of good quality foreign varieties of liquor.

Pattern of psychiatric morbidity and alcohol dependence in patients with alcoholic liver disease

Fifty-six male patients with alcoholic liver disease were evaluated for the presence and severity of alcohol dependence and psychiatric illness using a severity of alcohol dependence questionnaire and research diagnostic criteria, respectively. Forty-three (76.7%) patients were found to be dependent; 26 (46.4%) moderately, and 17 (30.3%) severely. Patients with alcoholic hepatitis were significantly (P less than 0.05) more often found to be dependent than patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Psychiatric morbidity was observed in 42 (75%) of the patients with alcoholic liver disease and 15 (26.7%) of the nonalcoholic cirrhotics. The difference was highly significant (P less than 0.01). The commonest disorders in patients with alcoholic liver disease were neuroses (33.0%), followed by affective disorders (26.8%). It was, however, not possible to ascertain whether psychiatric disorders antedated alcoholism or were secondary to it. Detection of moderate to severe dependence on alcohol and psychiatric morbidity in about three-fourths of the patients with alcoholic liver disease warrants an increased awareness and a multidisciplinary approach for the management of these patients.

Accuracy of death certificates in the diagnosis of alcoholic liver cirrhosis

In 108 patients with alcoholic liver disease who died during a 10-year follow-up, the diagnoses from the liver biopsies were compared with that from the Death Certificates. Data show that the currently used ICD-9 category of cirrhosis with or without mention of alcohol has a 47.2% chance of missing the diagnosis of cirrhosis. On the other hand when the mention of liver disease in the Death Certificate is used for the diagnosis of cirrhosis, the percentage of undiagnosed cirrhosis decreases to 19.4% (p less than 0.0001).

Liver disease in the alcoholic

The problem of liver damage in alcoholic patients is widespread. This review discusses hepatic damage on the basis of a histologic classification of increasing severity. In the early stages, or with compensated cirrhosis, clinical and laboratory findings may not accurately reflect hepatic involvement. Furthermore, there exists a group of alcoholic patients in whom liver disease may be caused by factors other than alcohol. Nevertheless, in most patients with liver disease, certain biochemical features help to establish an alcoholic etiology. These features and the use of liver biopsy are discussed, and a practical guideline for diagnosis and follow-up is offered.

Type IV collagen and laminin-related antigens in human serum in alcoholic liver disease

The two major constituents of basement membranes are type IV collagen and laminin. Specific radioimmunoassays are described here for two structural domains of these proteins (7-S collagen and the fragment P1, respectively) that allow the related antigens to be quantified in human serum. The serum 7-S collagen antigen was uniform in size, whereas the laminin P1 antigenicity was heterogeneous. These proteins were measured in sera from sixty-three alcoholics, divided on the basis of liver histology into four groups: normal light microscopy, fatty liver, alcoholic cirrhosis with hepatitis and inactive cirrhosis. The group with cirrhosis and hepatitis had clearly elevated values in both assays, differing significantly from the others. A few pathological results were also seen in the other groups. The increases noted in 7-S collagen concentration were larger than those in laminin P1. During follow-up of a patient with cirrhosis and hepatitis the 7-S collagen level in particular seemed to reflect the course of the disease. The elevated basement membrane protein concentrations in serum may be associated with the formation of real basement membranes in the perisinusoidal space, a process known as capillarization of the sinusoids which is found during the development of liver cirrhosis.