(I) Clinical Part
Clinical investigations were carried out with 51 sporadic cases of infectious hepatitis. The analysis of the development of disease led us to the followingclassification:
I. a) Influenza type.
Influenza-like acute febrile onset with disorders of digestive organs.
b) Gastrointestinal type.
Afebrile onset with disorders of digestive organs.
II. Atypical type.
Insidious onset with retarded manifestation of jaundice.
The distribution of our cases were as follows:
I. a) 57%
I. b) 27%
II 16%
I. a) type took the most characteristic course of disease with a good prognosis. No fatal case was experienced. Protracted or severe cases belonged invariably to I. b) and II. In each of these two types two cases of acute liver atrophy were experienced. One fatal case was observed in I. b) and two in II, respectively. The patients of these two types did not keep quiet due to the still maintained sense of well-being, which might have influenced the prognosis unfavourably.
(II) Histological Part
Various liver function tests and liver biopsy were carried out with 64 sporadic cases of infectious hepatitis, in order to elucidate the patho-physiological process of the disease. The results were as follows:
1. The predominant findings in the acute stage consisted of necrosis and degeneration of liver cells, periportal inflammatory infiltration and mesenchymal reaction. The most striking feature, however, was the disarray of liver cell columns.
2. All the cases with manifest clinical symptoms demonstrated regularly the evidence of microscopic changes observed in the acute stage regardless of their week of illness.
3. In the recovery phase the normalisation of the histological changes inaugurated in the peripheral portion of the lobule and progressed then to the central. A remarkable improvement of the microscopic abnormalities was observed usually in 2-3 weeks, though there were protracted cases with a slow recovery.
4. Persistent changes in the latter were always apparent in the central portion of the lobule.
5. One case, with which the histological investigation of serial biopsy materials was. performed, revealed a conspicuous formation of pseudolobules. The possibility of development of liver cirrhosis could not be thus denied.
6. No significant difference of histological changes was recognized between the above mentioned three types.
7. Among the function tests the B. S. P. and the urine bilirubin correlated well to the histological findings, while the plasma protein pattern and various colloid reactions did not parallel with them.
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