Alcoholic liver diseases in Portugal. Clinical and laboratory picture, mortality, and survival

Six main types of histopathological changes were found in 463 patients with chronic alcoholism admitted during the 10-year period from 1966 to 1975: group I, normal liver in 2.6%; group II, fatty liver in 8.4%; group III, acute alcoholic hepatitis (AAH) in 7.6%; group IV, cirrhosis with or without steatosis in 68.7%; group V, cirrhosis with AAH in 12.8%; group VI, liver cell carcinoma (LCC) in 1.9% (all of the latter patients were also included in group IV). Seventy-three % were males and 27% were females. Females tended to be older than males. Cirrhosis was found in 68% of the group between 21 and 30 yr and in 85% between 51 and 60 yr. Normal histology or steatosis was less frequent after the age of 50 yr. Ascites and jaundice were more frequent in patients with AAH than in patients with steatosis. The majority of patients had SGOT under 100 karmen units/ml; SGPT was normal in 80% of patients with cirrhosis and higher than 100 karmen units/ml in 10%. SGPT was higher than SGOT in only 11.9% of the patients. Mortality was 46.7% according to the followup until 1978. Survival was 38.4% at the end of the first year and decreased very slowly afterwards to 32.8% in males and 11.5% in females after a 5-yr period.