[Diagnostic problems of viral hepatitis].

The diagnosis of viral hepatitis was not confirmed in 2976 (22.79%) out of the admitted to the hospital patients for a period of 15 years. What impresses is the percentage growth for the last several years, reaching to 30. This, on one hand is associated with the greater exigence of HEI and with the strong fear of that disease as well as with the improved diagnostic possibilities of the infectious diseases wards on the other. In fact, almost all patients with icterus were admitted to infectious diseases wards, where the differential diagnosis of icterus was made. The first place among the false diagnoses is occupied by liver-bile diseases, progressing with icterus-50.81%, (cholelithiasis-29%, carcinoma-11%, cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, steatosis, cholangiohepatitis, pancreatitis, etc-10.8%). Second, according to incidence, come the gastrointestinal diseases-13.51%, grippe and grippe-like diseases-13.44%, lung diseases-5.21%, blood-3.80%, heart-3.16%, toxic hepatitis 3.26%, etc. Thirty cases of infectious mononucleosis with icterus are reported as well as 17 patients with liver etzymopathies, syndrome of Dublin--Johnson--6 and Gilbert--Meulengracht syndrome--11. Viral hepatitis diagnosis is not always easy and in many cases it requires a complex of laboratory and other investigations and many years of experience. However, the false diagnosis could be reduced with more than a half with the careful consideration of the epidemic situation, anamnestic and clinical data.