[Alcoholic hepatitis: epidemiologic nature and severity of the clinical course in Argentina]

Focusing on frequency and severity of alcoholic hepatitis (AH) in our country, data provided by 10 university and health care centers were analyzed, based on a form specially designed; 3428 autopsy protocols, 4315 laparoscopy and/or liver biopsy records, and 414 clinical histories from histopathologically proved AH patients, were selected as information source. Autopsy prevalence was 2.4%, corresponding to AH 7.7% of whole diagnostic liver biopsies, 24.6% of those taken from chronic alcoholics, and 32.2% of biopsied alcoholic liver diseases. Clinical severity was related to the kind of centre where data came from (hepatological, neuropsychiatric, etc.) but general sample showed 76.5% mild AH, 17.6% moderate, and 5.7% severe. Acute mortality attributable to AH was 5.5%, raising up 40.0% in severe type group; clinical severity seemed to be more related to mortality than co-existent cirrhosis. Spontaneous encephalopathy, prothrombin concentration under 50% without response to K vitamin supply, and hepato-renal syndrome, were the more significant bad prognosis factors (31.2%, 50.6% and 66.6% mortality respectively).