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Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

Clinicopathological comparison with alcoholic hepatitis in ambulatory and hospitalized patients

  • Liver: Infectious, Inflammatory, and Metabolic Disorders
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Abstract

This study reports a clinicopathological analysis of 105 patients whose liver histology showed a pattern of alcohol-like steatohepatitis. There were 32 nonalcoholic, 21 asymptomatic ambulatory, and 52 hospitalized alcoholic hepatitis patients. Female sex, obesity, and diabetes predominated in nonalcoholics. Clinical and laboratory presentation were similar in nonalcoholics and ambulatory alcoholics, but different from the hospitalized alcoholics. Histology showed an increasing degree of severity of hepatocellular damage. Mallory bodies, neutrophil and mononuclear infiltration, and pericellular and portal fibrosis from the nonalcoholics to the hospitalized alcoholics, with ambulatory alcoholics displaying an intermediate degree of severity. Steatosis and glycogenated nuclei were prevalent in the obese, diabetic nonalcoholics, of whom 47% had significant fibrosis and 8% cirrhosis, the latter present in 38% and 89% of ambulatory and hospitalized alcoholic hepatitis (P=0.0001), respectively. In asymptomatic subjects with suspected liver disease, a liver biopsy is the only way of establishing the type and severity of liver lesions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Medicina 2, Hospital de Santa Maria, Av. Prof. Egas Moniz, 1669, Lisboa, Portugal

    Helena Cortez Pinto MD, Amélia Baptista MD, Maria Ermelinda Camilo MD PhD, Ana Valente MD, Antonio Saragoça MD & Miguel Carneiro de Moura MD, PhD

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  1. Helena Cortez Pinto MD
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  2. Amélia Baptista MD
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  3. Maria Ermelinda Camilo MD PhD
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  4. Ana Valente MD
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  5. Antonio Saragoça MD
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  6. Miguel Carneiro de Moura MD, PhD
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Pinto, H.C., Baptista, A., Camilo, M.E. et al. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. Digest Dis Sci 41, 172–179 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208601

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02208601

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