[Liver disease in toxic oil syndrome. Clinical and enzymatic course]

One-hundred and fifty-nine patients intoxicated with adulterated oil in the province of Salamanca, Spain, were followed-up for 2 years from the onset of the syndrome, in 1981. Four alcoholic patients were excluded from the study. In the remaining 155 patients the liver involvement at the onset took different forms. It was acute in 12 (7%), with jaundice and/or hepatomegaly associated with cytolysis and/or cholestasis; 21 patients (13%) had evidence of cytolysis and/or cholestasis without clinical symptoms, and 29 (18%) only showed a rise in gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase with normal transaminase and alkaline phosphatase levels. Liver enlargement and/or jaundice subsided within 1 month in the 12 patients with clinical symptoms. However, high gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase levels persisted in 4 of them and in 5 of the 21 patients with laboratory abnormalities only. At the end of the study, this enzyme remained elevated in 6 and 7 patients respectively of these two groups and in 5 of the 29 patients with no other abnormality than a rise in gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase.