[Clinico-laboratory characteristics of the cholestatic form of acute alcoholic hepatitis]

Altogether 108 patients with acute alcoholic hepatitis (AAH) were examined. Of these, 14 patients (13%) presented with the cholestatic pattern of AAH, 45 with extrahepatic cholestasis, and 45 were healthy. As compared with the total patients' group with AAH, the patients with the cholestatic form consumed alcohol in greater amounts. Due to intensive jaundice, 50% of the patients were admitted by error to the infectious clinic and 32% to the surgical one. The disease runs a comparatively grave course, the general conditions gets deteriorated, the body temperature rises, the patient senses pains in the right hypochondrium, skin pruritus is lacking. As compared with other patterns of cholestasis, cholestatic AAH is characterized by a higher thymol test, higher levels of cholesterol, low density lipoproteins, activation of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase and aspartate aminotransferase and by a lower level of leukocytes, bilirubin, free fatty acids and alkaline phosphatase. Verification of the diagnosis demands the use of certain up-to-date instrumental methods. To identify the cause of cholestasis, great diagnostic significance is attached to echography.