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Arch Intern Med. 1970;125(1):17-28.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Diagnosis of cirrhosis

Cirrhosis is often over-diagnosed in alcoholic patients, reports Canadian physician Paul Devenyi, MD.

The problem is, he said, that many physicians are unable to differentiate between cirrhosis (which is rare) and fatty liver (which is common) in alcoholic patients.

Dr. Devenyi, senior physician at the Addiction Research Foundation of Ontario, has just completed a study of 100 alcoholic patients admitted for treatment at the Foundation.

Liver biopsies showed 65 patients with fatty infiltration, 34 with normal livers, and only one with advanced portal cirrhosis.

Using the biopsies as a baseline, he found that SGOT, SGPT, and BSP retention were the best indicators of a fatty liver. For example, 49 of the 65 patients with fatty liver had an SGOT over 46 sigma units. Only four of those with normal livers had an elevated value.

When both SGOT and SGPT were considered together, there were no normal values . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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