[Nutritional status of patients with alcoholic liver diseases: comparison of the situation in the seventies and at present].
AIMS. 1) To evaluate the nutritional status of a group of alcohol abusers, relatively to their liver function and morphology, and 2) to compare these data with those of a previous study carried out by out team ten years ago. According to their body weight, 135 alcohol abusers were divided into three groups: normal-weight, over-weight and under-weight. The severity of their hepatopathy was defined as: 1. slight hepatopathy; 2. alcohol-induced hepatitis; 3. alcohol-induced hepatitis plus cirrhosis; 4 child A cirrhosis; 5. child B cirrhosis. RESULTS. 1. The overweight group was homogeneously distributed among the several degrees of compensated hepatopathy. 2. There was a marked reactivity to skin tests (Multitest) in patients with alcohol hepatitis without cirrhosis, independently of nutritional disorders. 3. Only decompensated cirrhosis may cause caloric-protein malnutrition; consequently, nutritional disorders due to alcohol abuse appear late and they are unlikely to play a leading role in the pathogenesis of liver disease due to alcohol abuse. Obesity, on the other hand, may facilitate the onset of liver steatosis.
Baldini
G G
GG
Divisione Medicina Generale II, USSL 67-Regione Lombardia, Ospedale Santa Corona, Garbagnate Milanese, Milano.
Zaina
A
A
Della Ventura
G
G
Giacomini
V
V
Muzio
F
F
D000328:Adult; D001835:Body Weight; D005235:Fatty Liver, Alcoholic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006519:Hepatitis, Alcoholic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D009752:Nutritional Status; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications
Stato nutrizionale in pazienti con epatopatia etilica: confronto tra la situazione degli anni '70 e l'attuale.