The criteria of histological activity and the prognosis in precirrhotic alcoholic hepatopathies

: The work deals with a group of 212 patients suffering from various forms of precirrhotic alcoholic liver disease and includes a period of 8.5 years (January 1981-June 1989). At least two liver biopsies were performed in all patients. according to the histological diagnosis, the patients were distributed into 6 subgroups: simple hepatic steatosis--24 cases (11.3%), hepatic fibrosis--40 cases (18.8%), hepatic steatofibrosis--69 cases (32.5%), acute alcoholic hepatitis--18 cases (8.5%), chronic active hepatitis--43 cases (20.3%) and chronic persisting hepatitis--18 cases (8.5%). The assessed histological parameters included: fatty transformation, hepatic fibrosis, inflammatory infiltrate within the lobules and in the portal spaces, hepatocellular necrosis, cholestasis, proliferation of the bile ductules and modification of the lobular architectonic. The work is aimed at pointing out the precirrhotic hepatic histological lesions induced by alcohol and fraught with an increased risk of progression towards liver cirrhosis. The histological sequential examination of alcoholic hepatic lesions confirm the possibility of progression and installation of the cirrhotic stage for a number of these lesions. Liver cirrhosis developed in 44 patients (20.7%) within a period of 3-7 years, on an average 5.5 years. The progression toward cirrhosis occurred in 12 patients (5.7%) with steatofibrosis, in 11 (5.2%) with hepatic fibrosis, in 14 (6.6%) with an intralobular inflammatory infiltrate, in 17 (8%) with hepatocellular necrosis, in 3 (1.4%) with cholestasis, in 5 (2.3%) with proliferation of the bile ductules and in 10 patients (4.7%) with a modification of the lobular architectonic. In addition, cirrhosis was detected in 8 patients (3.8%) with alcoholic hepatitis and in 13 patients (6.1%) with chronic active hepatitis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)