[Alcohol-smoking interaction in hepatic lesions]

The consequences upon the liver of the simultaneous action of alcohol and of tobacco smoke substances were evaluated. The clinical and biochemical alterations shown by 18 alcoholics non smokers were compared to those shown by 36 alcoholics smokers, taken from a population of 189 male patients admitted into a psychiatric hospital for alcoholism treatment. The smokers, relative to the non smokes, had lower average age and earlier onset of alcoholism, drank greater quantities of alcohol per day and in shorter periods, and showed between others biochemical plasmatic alterations, more elevated levels of aspartate aminotransferase (with AST/ALT ratio greater) and alkaline phosphatase, suggestive of more pronounced hepatic aggression.