HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE ALCOHOLIC HEPATITIS FROM ALCOHOLIC CIRRHOSIS AND IS THE DIFFERENTIATION IMPORTANT?
The association of alcohol abuse and liver damage is known since the times of ancient Greeks and is also recognised in Ayurveda. The clinical spectrum of alcoholic liver injury varies from asymptomatic hepatomegaly to profound hepatocellular failure with portal hypertension. The clinical picture tends to be more florid in individuals with more advanced liver injury. Alcoholic liver injury appears to progress from fatty changes through alcoholic hepatitis to cirrhosis. Majority of the individuals who abuse alcohol will develop fatty changes in their liver at some stage of their drinking career. However only 20% of such individuals will develop cirrhosis. The apparent predisposition of certain people to develop alcoholic cirrhosis is unknown. Fatty liver, though indicating a profound metabolic disturbance within the liver, is not necessarily harmful. Certainly, cirrhosis may develop in an alcoholic who has never had fatty change and isolated fatty change has not been shown to proceed dir
