[The importance of HLA antigens in alcoholic cirrhosis]

The existence of a relationship between HLA and the possibility of the development of an alcoholic cirrhosis is researched in this paper. This work was done from 1982 to 1984, by the staff of four clinics of the Medicine School of the University of Uruguay. We studied 47 alcoholics with portal cirrhosis, 19 non-cirrhotic alcoholics and 250 healthy nonalcoholic controls. We confirmed with liver biopsy the cirrhosis in the first group and in the second, liver biopsy was performed in order to assure that they had no cirrhosis. Table I shows the histocompatibility antigens which were tested in the 3 groups. Levels of significance were obtained from exact Fisher test with Yates correction for discontinuity; Pc (corrected P) and RR (relative risk) were also determined. In the alcoholics with portal cirrhosis, the HLABW40 showed a Pc less than 0,005 (RR = 3,93). In the non-cirrhotic alcoholics no significative association was found. We conclude that the carrier of the genetic marker HLABW40, has almost 4 times more chances to develop a cirrhosis as consequence of chronic alcoholic abuse. The presence of this marker, in our patients, has no association with the possibility that an individual becomes an alcoholic abuser. We think that if this data are confirmed in a wider study, some guidelines for the prevention of alcoholic cirrhosis may be established.