If a person is alcoholic, his/her liver gets damaged in three ways.
1. Alcoholic fatty liver: Occurs in 80%-90% of cases.
2. Alcoholic hepatitis: 5%-10% of cases.
3. Alcoholic Cirrhosis:5%-10% of cases.
The effect of alcohol damaging the liver depends on:
1. Duration of Alcohol consumption.
2. Amount of Alcohol consumed.
3. Sex of the person.
Note: If a male person is taking alcohol more than 60 grams in a day for 10 years and a female taking 20-40 grams of alcohol for 10 years, liver damage is equal in both male and female.
4. Social status.
5. Body resistance power.
6. Nutrition status
7. Infections – Hepatitis C infection increases the damage of liver in Alcoholics.
If a person takes alcohol 40-80 grams per day, fatty liver occurs within 10 years. If a person takes 80-160 grams per day, Alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis occurs within 10 years.
Points to remember:
1. 1 beer bottle=4 ounce of wine=12 grams of alcohol
2. 1 ounce of spirit=12 grams of alcohol.
Signs and Symptoms of Fatty liver:
1. In the initial stages, patient does not show any symptoms but liver enlarges in size.
2. Pain and discomfort in the right side of the abdomen.
3. Vomiting and Nausea.
4. Yellowish discoloration in the eyes.
Signs and symptoms of alcoholic hepatitis:
1. Red spots on the skin looking like a spider.
2. Severe pain in the abdomen.
3. Jaundice.
4. Fever in a few cases.
Tests to be done:
1. Liver function tests
2. Ultrasound scan
3. Carbohydrate deficient transferring (CDT)
4. Gamma Glutamyl Transpeptin (GGTP)
5. Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV)
6. Serum Uric Acid.
Death rate is 70% in serious cases.
