Hepatic fibrosis produced in guinea pigs by chronic ethanol administration and immunization with acetaldehyde adducts.

Experimental hepatic fibrosis was produced in the guinea pig. We produced hepatic necrosis associated with inflammatory cell infiltration in guinea pigs immunized with acetaldehyde adducts and fed ethanol for 40 days. Extending the period of these treatments to 90 days resulted in producing hepatic fibrosis developing around individual hepatocytes in the terminal hepatic venule areas and portal areas, accompanied by an increase in hepatic hydroxyproline content.

Relationship between hepatitis C virus subtypes and clinical features of liver disease seen in alcoholics.

The influence of hepatitis C virus and its subtypes on the clinical course of liver disease in alcoholics was assessed. Hepatitis C virus infection was confirmed by a reverse transcription and polymerase chain reaction method for the hepatitis C virus NS-5 region in the sera of alcoholics with various stages of histologically proven liver disease. The frequency of hepatitis C virus was significantly higher in alcoholics with chronic hepatitis (73%) than in those with liver fibrosis (18%), alcoholic hepatitis (17%), and fatty liver (0%).

[Definition and classification of liver cirrhosis].

The clinical features of liver cirrhosis are manifestation of altered hepatic hemodynamics and of reduced hepatic cell mass, represented by portal hypertension and sometimes hepatic failure. Histologically, cirrhosis is defined in general as a diffusely altered reconstruction of the lobular parenchyma with widespread connective tissue septa, which circumscribe regenerative nodules of the hepatocytes and contain anastomoses between efferent as well as afferent vascular systems linking central and portal canals. Thus, a large portion of portal blood flow bypasses the hepatocytes and reticuloendothelial cells, depleting them of their metabolic and detoxifying function.

Experimental hepatitis induced by ethanol after immunization with acetaldehyde adducts.

We produced hepatitis in guinea pigs by immunization with acetaldehyde adducts and ethanol treatment. Human hemoglobin-acetaldehyde adducts were prepared without any reducing agents and affinity purified with polyclonal antibodies against acetaldehyde adducts. Female guinea pigs were immunized with the adducts and were simultaneously given ethanol for 40 days.

[A case of miliary tuberculosis presenting as fever and jaundice with hepatic failure looking like the course of fulminant hepatitis].

A 79-year-old male was admitted to the Metropolitan Hiroo Hospital with chief complaints of icterus and fever. A few weeks prior to admission, he developed fever and swelling of right side of the neck and was seen at a local hospital where an anti-inflammatory agent was prescribed. The fever subsided in a few days, but recurred together with development of icterus a few weeks later, precipitating this hospitalization.