11. Alcoholic, Metabolic, and Autoimmune Liver Disease Flashcards
What is METAVIR?
Scoring system for liver biopsies that takes the inflammation (grade) and fibrosis (stage) into account
What are the inflammation stages of the METAVIR score?
0 No activity 1 Minimal 2 Mild 3 Moderate 4 Severe
What are the fibrosis stages of the METAVIR system?
0 No fibrosis 1 Portal fibrosis 2 Periportal fibrosis 3 Septal fibrosis 4 Cirrhosis
What happens in stage 1 of the METAVIR system?
Portal fibrosis: area around the triad is affected, fibrosis often irreversible
What happens in stage 2 of the METAVIR system?
Periportal fibrosis–extends beyond the triad
What happens in stage 3 of the METAVIR system?
Septal fibrosis–bridging fibrosis occurs between triads, and some laying down of collagen/CT towards the portal vein
What happens in stage 4 of the METAVIR system?
Nodules form, with scar tissue surrounding relatively normal tissue
Cirrhosis!
What is hepatic necrosis?
Injury causing lysis of hepatocytes, acute cell death
Happens much more quickly than fibrosis, which may take years
What can can hepatic necrosis lead to?
Acute liver failure
What is fulminant liver failure?
Acute liver failure with COAGULOPATHY and ENCEPHALOPATHY
What are the two most common causes of acute and fulminant liver failure?
Medications--acetaminophen Viral hepatitis (NOT HCV)
Alcohol content of beer, wine, and liquor?
5%
12%
40%
Serving size of beer, wine, and liquor?
12 oz
4 oz
1.5 oz
Amount of alcohol in beer, wine, and liquor?
- 8 gm
- 7 gm
- 4 gm
What is binge drinking for women? men?
4 or more drinks in a single occasion
5 or more drinks in a single occasion
What is heavy drinking for women? Men?
More than 1 drink/day on average
More than 2 drinks/day on average
What is excessive drinking?
Heavy drinking or binge drinking or both
What are the two methods by which ethanol is metabolized to acetaldehyde?
Alcohol dehydrogenase
CYP2E1
How is acetaldehyde converted to acetic acid?
Aldehyde dehydrogenase
What is the system that CYP2E1 is a part of?
Microsomal ethanol oxidizing system
What else is metabolized by CYP2E1 aside from ethanol?
Acetaminophen
Who is deficiency in aldehyde dehydrogenase?
Large percentage of Asian patients
**leads to flushing on consumption of ethanol
What are the 2 key consequences of increased alcohol metabolism?
Increased NADH
Increased acetaldehyde
What are the adverse effects of increased NADH from alcohol metabolism?
Inhibition of the TCA cycle resulting in reduced gluconeogenesis
Reduced fatty acid oxidation
What are the adverse effects of increased acetaldehyde from alcohol metabolism?
Activation of stellate cells to form collagen
Shearing of microfilaments that maintain intracellular skeleton
Kuppfer cells produce TNF alpha and IL-8
What are 5 aspects of the pathogenesis of alcohol at the sinusoids
Loss of fenestration Dense ECM Activated Kupffer cells Activated stellate cells Los of
What is the first change that is seen in alcoholic liver disease (ALD)?
Fatty liver
What do ALD patients with fatty liver develop?
Alcoholic hepatitis 10-35%
Cirrhosis 8-20%
**40% of patients with alcoholic hepatitis may convert to cirrhosis
How are inflammatory cells recruited in conversion to alcoholic hepatitis?
IL-8 and TNF from Kuppfer cells
What are 5 risk factors for ALD?
- Quantity of alcohol (>30 g/day in men and 20 g/day in women)
- Alcohol outside of meals (slow emptying slow absorption)
- Binge drinking
- Gender (risk higher for women)
- Hepatitis C
What is the AST/ALT ratio in ALD? What is ALT usually below?
2
<300
What are three hematological characteristics seen in ALD?
- Prolonged INR (in advanced disease)
- Macrocytic anemia
- Thrombocytopenia (in advanced disease)
What are the two main components of treatment of alcoholic hepatitis?
- Abstinence and lifestyle modification – nutritional support
- Anti-inflammatory drugs – glucocorticoids and penoxyifylline
How does pentoxifylline work?
Inhibits TNF alpha
How do you determine who should be treated for viral hepatitis?
Discriminant function:
- 6 (PT - PT control) + total bilirubin
* *patients with values over 32 have a 1 mo mortality from 30-50%
What are two drugs that improve survival in alcoholic hepatitis?
Glucocorticoids
Pentoxifylline
What is the scoring system for determining how sick a patient with cirrhosis is?
Child-Turcotte-Pugh score
5-7 Mild
8-10 Moderate
11-15 Severe
What is the classic patient with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
Obese female with diabetes mellitus
What are the two histological categories of NAFLD?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL)
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
What is the histological category of non-alcoholic fatty liver defined as?
Presence of hepatic steatosis without inflammation of hepatocellular injury (ballooning of hepatocytes)
What is the histologic category of NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) defined as?
Presence of hepatic steatosis WITH inflammation and hepatocellular injury (ballooing of hepatocytes) with or without fibrosis
What is the most common cause of elevated transaminases in the US?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
What is the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease?
Fatty liver (hepatosteatosis)
Steatohepatitis (NASH, 10%)
Steatohepatitis with fibrosis (35% of NASH)
Cirrhosis (15% of NASH)
What are the most common risk factors for NAFLD?
- Abdominal obesity
- High fasting glucose
- Hypertriglyceridemia (more so than cholest)
* *also low HDL and high BP
How does the prevalence and severity of NAFLD change with age?
Prevalence increases
Severity (including advanced fibrosis/cirrhosis) increases
What is them ost common chronic liver disease in the US?
Non-alcoholic fatty liver (20% of americans)
NASH is the second most common
What is the gender preference for NAFLD? Race?
Males>females
Hispanics>caucasians>African Americans
What is obesity defined as?
BMI over 30 or 30 lb overweight for a 5’4 person
What is the most common liver disease in children in the US?
NAFLD
**present in 18% children
What type of hyperlipidemia increased the risk for NAFLD?
Hypertriglyceridemia rather than hypercholesteremia
**3 fold greater risk with TGs>200
Three key causes of steatosis and steatohepatitis
- Alcohol
- Medications–amiodarone, steroids, HAART, tamoxifen, diltiazem
- Nutrition–total parenteral nutrition
* *also insulin resistance, abetalipoproteinemia, weight cancers
How will a fatty liver appear on CT?
Darker (compare to spleen)
Nodular if NASH is present