STUDIES ON THE ETIOLOGY AND CLINICAL FEATURES OF 270 CASES WITH LIVER CIRRHOSIS

Abstract

Etiologies and clinical features of 270 cases with liver cirrhosis who admitted to our institution during the years from 1971 to 1980 were analysed. The cases were classified into five groups according to their suspected etiology, i.e. alcoholic (incidence; 24.1%), viral (33.7%), alcohol/viral (8.9%), cryptogenic (30.7%) and a group of specific etiologies (2.6%). Incidence of alcoholic cirrhosis increased by 10% compared with the previous study which carried out fifteen years ago at the same institution.
On physical examination, vascular spider and splenomegaly were more frequent in alcoholic group than in viral group. On liver function tests, viral group showed that mean GOT and TTT were higher than those in alcoholic group. GOT/GPT ratio was lower in viral group than that in alcholoic group.
Occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma was obscured in 18.5% of alcoholic cirrhosis, 35.2% of cirrhosis with viral etiology, 45.8% of alcoholic/viral cases and 21.7% of cryptogenic cirrhosis. In HBsAg positive male cases, occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma was further facilitated by consumption of a large amount of alcohol.