title: [Clinical characteristics of 4132 patients with alcoholic liver disease].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the clinical characteristics of patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD).
  
  
  METHODS
  The records of the 302 Hospital of People's Liberation Army (Beijing, China) were searched to identify patients diagnosed with liver disease for retrospective analysis of ALD. Measurement data was summarized as mean +/- standard deviation and intergroup comparisons were made using ANOVA; count data was assessed using the chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the total 4132 ALD cases, 97.68% were male and 2.32% were female; ages ranged from 18 to 95 years-old,with the average age being 48.11+/-10.58 years and the range of 40 to 60 years-old being the most frequently represented.Considering all patients with liver disease from 2003 to 2012,ALD cases increased over time (from 2.00% in 2003 to 5.05% in 2012). The overall ALD cases were represented by alcoholic cirrhosis (70.35%), alcoholic hepatitis (19.26%), alcoholic fatty liver (6.29%), and alcoholic liver failure (4.09%). Among the ALD patients between 40 and 60 years of age, 73.81% had cirrhosis,compared to 50.42% of ALD patients less than 40 years-old (P less than 0.001). Comparison of ALD cases in 5-year increments showed increasing trends in rates of alcoholic cirrhosis and alcoholic hepatic failure;moreover, there was an increasing annual trend in the percentage of alcoholic liver failure cases among the total cases of liver failure in our hospital.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From 2003 to 2012,our hospital admissions increased for patients with alcoholic liver disease, and the patients were primarily in the age range of 40-60 years-old. In general, incidences of alcoholic liver failure and cirrhosis increased in recent years, and cirrhosis has been common among the elderly patients with ALD.
authors.affiliation: Liver Failure Treatment and Research Center of the People's Limitary Army 302 Hospital, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Hongling
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Limin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yihui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: Wanshu
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shaoli
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Shaojie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000068476:Beijing; D005235:Fatty Liver, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006519:Hepatitis, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology*; D017093:Liver Failure / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult