The clinicopathological spectrum of alcoholic liver disease--an autopsy survey of 441 cases.
An autopsy survey of 441 cases of alcoholic liver disease from the first year of each of the last three decades in the Los Angeles area of the United States was studied. This study includes 326 cases of cirrhosis, 57 cases of fatty liver, 27 cases of alcoholic hepatitis, and 31 cases of fibrosis associated with excessive alcoholic use. Criteria for the histologic classification and the clinical features of alcoholic liver disease are discussed. This survey shows a trend of slight increase in the frequency of alcoholic liver disease and a threefold increase in alcohol related deaths in women in the autopsied population in the early 1980s. Overall, almost half of the patients with alcohol related death showed hypertrophic livers in each subcategory of alcoholic live disease. The whole spectrum of alcoholic liver disease is observed in this series. All the cases with hepatocellular carcinoma are cirrhotic and these patients expired 10 years older than the alcoholic hepatitis group. This study indicates alcohol is probably not carcinogenic but alcohol is cirrhogenic with malignant potentials which could lead to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma in the cirrhoto-regenerative process.
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Department of Pathology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001344:Autopsy; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology*; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology