Chronic liver disease an epidemiologic study on 360 patients

The purpose of this study was to carry out an epidemiological investigation to identify the most important characteristic of chronic liver diseases (chronic hepatitis, hepatic cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma). These diesases can be considered different stages of the same pathological process. Three hundred and sixty patients from a well-defined geographic area in Central Italy hospitalised during a four-year time period from 1991 to 1995 were enrolled in the study. One hundred and fifty four patients were diagnosed with chronic hepatitis, 168 with hepatic cirrhosis and 38 with hepatic carcinoma. Hepatitis C virus was the causal agent of chronic liver disease in 51.1% of the patients, whereas only 10.2% were caused by hepatis B virus. The remaining patients had a diagnosis of alcoholic liver disease. Men were more frequently involved than women (270/90). Most patients with hepatitis and cirrhosis showed good hepatic function as they were in the A stage of the Child-Pugh classification, whereas the reverse was true for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who were classified mainly in the C stage. Our data emphasize the important role of infectious agents in the etiopathogenesis of chronic liver disease. They identify virus C hepatitis as the most prevalent cause of chronic liver disease.