Wine consumption is not associated with a decreased risk of alcoholic cirrhosis in heavy drinkers.
OBJECTIVE
While it was thought that all alcoholic beverages share a similar liver toxicity when drunk at a high level, recent epidemiological surveys have suggested that wine drinking might decrease the risk of alcoholic cirrhosis in heavy drinkers. Therefore, we performed a study aiming to analyse the type and the intake levels of alcoholic beverages in heavy drinkers according to the severity of the liver disease.


METHODS
This is a case-control study enrolling 42 cirrhotic and 60 non-cirrhotic patients. Liver status was assessed using clinical, biological, histological and ultrasonographic procedures. Alcohol consumption was recorded using the Lifetime Drinking History method.


RESULTS
We did not find any significant differences in total alcohol consumption between cases and controls and, moreover, in our series, the relative percentage of pure alcohol drunk in wine was significantly higher in cirrhotic, than in non-cirrhotic, patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results confirm that the absence of a link between the type of alcoholic beverage and the occurrence of cirrhosis is still valid.
Pelletier
Stéphanie
S
Service d'Hépatogastroentérologie et Alcoologie, CHU Caremeau, Nîmes, INSERM U 370, Paris, France.
Vaucher
Emmanuel
E
Aider
Rachid
R
Martin
Sandrine
S
Perney
Pascal
P
Balmès
Jean Louis
JL
Nalpas
Bertrand
B
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D006801:Humans; D008104:Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014920:Wine / Q000009:adverse effects*