Hepatology Flashcards
Alcoholism
- Liver pathologies causes by alcoholism (3)
- USS finding (fatty liver), biopsy results
- Blood tests
- Withdrawal - symptoms
- Withdrawal - management
- Wernicke’s Encephalopathy - clinical features
- Korsakoff’s syndrome - cause and symptoms
- CAGE questionnaire (4)
- Questionnaire to decide level of alcohol dependence
- Advice if dependent
- Management - mild
- Medication to stop anxiety, insomnia, craving
- Medication causing acetaldehyde build up (N+V, flushing, headache, palpitations if drink)
- How to work out units
- Steatosis (fat in liver cells), hepatitis + cirrhosis
- Echogenicity up + mallory bodies, neutrophil infiltrates
- Macrocytic anaemia, high AST/ALT, very high YGT, high ALP in cirrhosis, high PT
- Tachycardia, HTN, tremor (6-12 hours), hallucination (12-24 hours), seizures (1-2 days), delirium tremens (1-3 days)
- Chlordiazepoxide, vit K, pabrinex (3 vitamins)
Pabrinex contains thiamine (vit B1 - always give if AD), riboflavin (B2), vitamin C - Confusion, ophthalmoplegia, ataxia
- Hypothalamic damage/cerebral atrophy from chronic thiamine deficiency (confabulation, no insight, apathy)
- Do you feel: should Cut down / Annoyed if drinking criticised / Guilty about drinking, ever have Eye opener
- AUDIT questionnaire
- No sudden stopping/NSAIDs/warfarin tell DVLA/work
- CBT +/- acamprostate
- Acamprostate
- Disulfiram
- % x ml / 1000 x no. of days
Cirrhosis
- Definition
- Causes
- Hand signs
- Face/neck signs
- Chest signs
- Abdominal signs
- Blood tests
- Further tests
- Decompensated definition
- Conservative management
- Screening required for
- Cirrhosis scores: severity, compensated mortality/need for transplant
- Hepatocellular degeneration, inflammation, + fibrous tissue thickening
- Alcohol, hepatitis (B/C), genetic (Wilson’s), drugs (methotrexate), autoimmune
- Clubbing, leukonychia, dupuytren’s contracture, palmar erythema, asterixis (flapping tremor if decompensated)
- Jaundice, raised JVP
- Spider naevi, gynacomastia, bruising (abnormal clotting)
- Hepatosplenomegaly, ascites, caput medusae
- AST/ALT/ALP/YGT/bilirubin up, U+E (deranges in HRS), platelets/albumin down, PT up, FBC (MCV high), IgA, cholesterol
- USS liver (nodular surface, corkscrew arteries, corkscrew portal vein), CT, biopsy if needed for extent of damage, MRCP/ERCP
- Cirrhosis with ascites/ bleeding / reduced GCS
- Alcohol abstinence, nutrition (low Na+, high protein)
- Varices development - OGD
- Child-Pugh (5-15), Meld (every 6 months)
Liver function tests (LFTs)
- Hepatic function tests
Aminotransferases (AST, ALT)
- Most specific for liver injury
- ALT - expressed in
- AST - expressed in
- ALP - expressed in
- yGT - expressed in
- Alcoholic liver disease
- Acute viral hepatitis
- Chronic viral hepatitis
- Fatty infiltration of liver
- Ischaemic hepatitis
- Cholestasis - blood results
- Bone - blood results
- Other causes for raised LDH
- Serum albumin, serum bilirubin, PT (INR)
- ALT
- Liver, kidney, muscle
- Liver, heart, skeletal muscle, RBCs
- Liver, bone (raised in growing children), placenta
- Liver, pancreas, renal tubules, intestine
- High AST:ALT is >2:1, high yGT, macrocytosis
- High ALT, maybe high AST, maybe normal bilirubin
- High ALT
- Mildly high AST/ALT
- Very high ALT, high LDH
- High ALP + yGT
- High ALP, normal yGT
- Liver metastases, obstructive jaundice
Jaundice
Causes
- Pre-hepatic
- Intra-hepatic
- Post-hepatic
- Unconjugated
- Conjugated
- Bilirubinuria - found in which types (2), appearance, why
- Urobilinogen - absent in which cause
- History - important points
- Examination
- Blood tests
- Further investigations
- Increased haemolysis e.g. sickle cell, malaria, spherocytosis, thalassaemia
- Hepatocellular damage
- Cholestasis
- Overproduction (haemolysis), impaired hepatic uptake (hepatitis from rifampicin, paracetamol, ischaemia), impaired conjugation (Gilbert’s), physiological neonatal (combination)
- Hepatocellular damage, cholestasis
- Intra and post, conjugated is water soluble, urine dark
- Cholestasis
- Blood transfusions, IVDU, piercings/tattoos, sex, travel, jaundice contacts, FH, alcohol, medication
- Chronic liver disease, hepatic encephalopathy, lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, ascites, palpable gall bladder (not gallstones if painless jaundice - Courvoisier)
- FBC, clotting, film, reticulocyte count, Coombs/haptoglobin for haemolysis, malaria, Paul Bunnell (EBV), culture, hepatitis serology
- Ultrasound, then ERCP, or biopsy
Disorders of excretion (cholestasis) - blood tests
Bilirubin
ALP
Copper raised
Cholesterol
(all increased in cholestasis)
Synthetic liver function - which tests
Coagulation - prothrombin time and INR
Liver screen
Albumin
Which clotting factors are produced by the liver?
1,2,5,7,11 and 13
Which tests are done in a liver screen?
Viral hepatitis CMV and EBV Autoantibodies Ig Ferritin Copper
USS of the liver
Acute liver failure
- Definition
- Consequences (2)
- Main causes (3)
- Infectious causes
- Drug sauses
- ‘Other’ causes
- Important questions
- Bloods
- Imaging
- Immediate management
- Monitoring requirement
- Commonest mode of death
- Fulminant hepatic failure - definition
- Complications
- Acute liver injury (reduction in hepatic function <6m due to hepatocellular death) - hyperacute <7d, acute 8-21d, subacute 4-26 weeks
- Increased INR, hepatic encephalopathy
- Infections, drugs, malignancy
- Hepatitis (A, B, E), immunocompromised (EBV, CMV), foreign travel (dengue)
- Paracetamol, cocaine, iron, amoxicillin, rifampicin, isoniazid, phenytoin, valproate
- Autoimmune, Wilson’s, ischaemia, pregnancy related (acute fatty liver / HELLP)
- Recent new medication, travel history, unprotected sex, IVDU
- FBC, U+E, LFT, albumin, coagulation, copper, glucose, ABG, hepatitis screen, toxicology, autoantibodies, culture
- USS, CT, ascitic tap
- ABC, fluid resuscitation, vitamin support, IV N-acetylcysteine if paracetamol, discuss with transplant/ITU
- INR 6 hourly, urine output, creatinine
- Sepsis
- Sudden onset liver failure with hepatic encephalopathy within 2 weeks in a person with no underlying liver pathology
- Cerebral oedema (mannitol, hyperventilate), ascites, bleeding (Vit K, platelets, FFP + blood), infection (ceftriaxone NOT gentamicin), encephalopathy
Hepatic encephalopathy
- Due to build up of
- Precipitating events
- Microbiology (3)
- Imaging (2)
- Bloods
- General acute management
- First line ammonia-focussed management
- Ammonia
- Infection, GI bleed (protein absorption), constipation, dehydration, alcohol binge, TIPS
- Blood cultures, ascitic tap, urine dip
- USS, CT
- FBC, U+E, LFT, coagulation, CRP, ABG (including ammonia), glucose
- ABCDE, fluids, ABX (rifamixin), treat the cause
- Lactulose - thought to promote the excretion of ammonia and increasing the metabolism of ammonia by gut bacteria
Liver tumours
Primary
- Main causes
- Important diagnostic tests (2)
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) - commonest cause
Cholangiocarcinoma (biliary tree cancer)
- Main risk factor
- Elevated markers
- What symptom comes earlier than in HCC
- Test to do if suspected following USS/CT
- Benign tumours - types (2)
Secondary (commonest)
- Origins in men
- Origins in women
- Hepatocellular carcinoma (75%), cholangiocarcinoma
- Abdominal USS/CT (3 phase), alpha feto protein (HCC)
- Fever, malaise, weight loss, RUQ pain
- Hepatomegaly (hard and irregular if metastases / HCC / cirrhosis), decompensation (e.g. jaundice, ascites)
- Hepatitis B - monitor AFP for HCC recurrence
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC)
- CA 19-9 (normally pancreas), CEA (normally bowel), CA 125 (normally ovarian)
- Jaundice
- ERCP with biopsy
- Haemangioma (don’t biopsy), adenoma (caused by steroids, COCP, pregnancy)
- Stomach, colon, lung
- Stomach, colon, breast, uterus
Autoimmune hepatitis
- Types (2), autoantibodies present, age
- Other linked autoimmune diseases
- Presentation
- Bloods
- Bloods suggesting hypersplenism
- Invasive test, + result
- Diagnosis
- 1st line management
- 1 (Anti-smooth, ANA - adults <40); 2 (anti-LKM1 - children)
- SLE, UC, GN, haemolysis, DM, PSC, thyroid disease, pernicious anaemia
- Acute hepatitis (e.g. jaundice), autoimmune disease signs (e.g. fever, malaise, urticaria, pleurisy polyarthritis), amennorhoea
- Bilirubin, AST, ALT, ALP, IgG all raised
- Pancytopaenia
- Liver biopsy (mononuclear infiltrate of peri/portal areas, piecemeal necrosis, +/ fibrosis)
- IgG, autoantibodies, histology in absence of viral disease
- Prednisolone, then azathioprine
Primary biliary cholangitis
- Cause and result
- Antibody present
- Typical presentation
- Early blood results
- Late blood results
- Complications
- Management
- Autoimmune distruction of the lobular ducts, can lead to cholestasis and fibrosis/cirrhosis/portal HTN
- Anti-mitochondrial (AMA) - M2 subtype
- Age 50, asymptomatic, maybe lethargy, pruritis, then jaundice much later
- Raised ALP, yGT (mild AST/ALT)
- Raised bilirubin/PTT, low albumin
- Malabsorption of fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K) from cholestasis and low bilirubin in gut lumen leads to osteomalacia, coagulopathy
- Symptoms (colestyramine for pruritis, codeine for diarrhoea), vits A/D/E/K, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA)
Primary sclerosing cholangitis
- Definition
- Associated condition
- Autoantibody present
- Associated cancer
- Other bloods
- Diagnostic imaging + findings
- Chronic liver disease leading due to fibrosis and inflammation leading to bile duct scarring, cholestasis and cirrhosis
- IBD
- p-ANCA
- Cholangiocarcinoma
- ALP, bilirubin, gamma globulins, IgM
- MRCP - duct stricture, damage/dilatation ‘beaded’ appearance
Liver disease - peripheral signs
Bruising - poor clotting
Malnourished
Oedema
Shunting of blood from the portal to systemic system leads to
Hepatic encephalopathy
Portal hypertension
- Definition
- Pre-hepatic causes (2)
- Hepatic causes (2)
- Post-hepatic causes (2)
- Clinical features
- Medical management (3)
- Surgical management
- Complications (3)
- Abnormally high pressure in the portal vein
- Thrombosis (splenic/portal/mesenteric vein), extrinsic compression
- Cirrhosis, hepatitis
- Cardiac failure, thrombosis (hepatic vein)
- Ascites, bleeding, decreased GCS
- Anticoagulation for thrombosis, beta blockers, TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt)
- Shunt
- Varices, ascites, splenomegaly
Hepatic / portal vein thrombosis - diagnostic imaging
US
Ruptured varices
- Clinical presentation
- Bloods
- 1st line management (2)
- Haemodynamically unstable, haematemesis, melaena, may be signs of chronic liver disease (e.g. jaundice, ascites, encephalopathy)
- ABG, FBC, LFT, U+E, clotting, group and save
- Endoscopy, banding
Best guide as to whether ascites due to portal hypertension
SAAG - Serum ascitic albumin gradient
<11 g/L
Ascites
- Transudate - protein count
- Causes
- Exudate - protein count
- Causes
- Examination findings
- Straw coloured fluid aspirate - meaning
- Orange
- Turbid
- Blood
- Management - conservative
- Medical
- Surgical
- Serious complication
- <25 g/L
- Liver failure, renal failure
- > 25 g/L
- Infection, malignancy, pancreatitis
- Swelling, full flanks, shifting dullness
- Normal
- Bilirubin
- Infection
- Malignancy
- Monitor fluid input and output, reduce sodium input
- Diuretics (spironolactone)
- Paracentesis, TIPS
- Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis
Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis
- Causative organisms
- Bloods
- Signs
- Main diagnostic investigation
- Medical management
- E.Coli, klebsiella, gram-positive cocci
- High WBC, CRP, creatinine or metabolic acidosis
- Fever, abdominal pain, ileus, hypotension
- Gram stain and cell count of ascitic tap
- IV cefotaxime / tazocin 5 days
Gilbert’s Syndrome
- Definition
- LFT results
- Genetic syndrome of mild unconjugated hyperbilirubinaemia
2. Liver function is otherwise normal
Liver damage/decompensation - causes
- Pre-hepatic
- Hepatic
- Systemic/post-hepatic
Pre-heptatic
- Haemolytic anaemia e.g. sickle cell or autoimmune
- Gilbert’s syndrome
Hepatic
- Hepatitis - infective / autoimmune
- Alcohol
- Fatty liver disease
- Haemochromatosis / Wilsons
- Primary biliary sclerosis
Post / systemic
- Gall bladder disease
- Pancreatic cancer
- Congestive heart failure
Hepatomegaly
- Associated symptoms
- Family history questions
- Social history questions
- Causes - mild
- Causes - moderate (‘MR HAM HIFI’)
- Causes - massive (‘MR HAM’)
- Smooth
- Craggy
- Nausea, pruritis, abdominal distention, weight loss, pyrexia, jaundice, dark urine, pale stool
- Sickle cell, carcinoma, autoimmune disease
- Travel history, alcohol, tattoos/needles/sex
- Hepatitis, biliary obstruction, HIV
- MR HAM, + Haematological disease, Iron (haemochromatosis), Fatty liver, Infiltration
- Metastases, Right heart failure, Hepatocellular cancer, Alcoholic liver disease, Myeloproliferative disorders
- Hepatitis, CCF, sarcoid, early cirrhosis, tricuspid incompetence (pulsatile)
- Secondaries, primary hepatoma
Hepatorenal syndrome
- Triad of signs
- Diagnosis only if
- Pathophysiology
- Type 1 - progression rate
- Management
- Type 2 - progression rate
- Management
- Cirrhosis, ascites, renal failure
- Other causes of renal impairment excluded
- Splanchnic/systemic vasodilation, renal vasoconstriction
- Quick, median survival <2 weeks
- Terlipressin for hypovolaemia, haemodialysis
- Steady, median survival 6 months
- TIPS, transplant
Drug-induced jaundice
- Haemolysis
- Hepatitis
- Cholestasis
- Antimalarials (dapsone)
- Paracetamol, TB drugs, MAOIs (selegiline), valproate, statins
- Fusidic acid, co-amoxiclav, nitrofurantoin, anabolic steroids, sulfonylureas, antipsychotics (prochlorperazine, chlorpromazine)
Viral hepatitis
Hep A
- Type
- Spread
- Symptoms
- Test
- Prognosis
Hep C
- Type
- Spread
- Symptoms
- Test
- Management
Hep D
- Type
- Test
- Prognosis
Hep E
- Type
- Spread
- RNA
- Faeco-oral (travellers)
- Fever, malaise, anorexia, jaundice, hepatosplenomegaly
- AST/ALT rise from day 20-40, IgM from day 25 (recent infection), IgG up for life
- Usually self-limiting
- RNA
- Blood, IVDU, sex
- Often mild/asymptomatic, cirrhosis after 20 years
- AST:ALT <1:1 until cirrhosis develops, anti-HCV antibodies (exposure), HCV PCR (ongoing infection)
- Ledipasvir/sofosbuvir
- Incomplete RNA (needs HBV)
- Anti-HDV antibody (only ask if HBsAg positive)
- Potential transplant
- RNA
- Faeco-oral, associated with pigs
Hepatitis B
- Type
- Spread
Bloods - abnormal results
- Incubation
- Acute
- Carrier
- Recovery/immune post-natural infection
- Vaccinated
- What is the surface antigen for HBV
- Which antigen implies high infectivity
- What is positive post-vaccination
- Complications
- Management
- DNA
- Blood, IVDU, sexual
- HBsAg, HBeAg
- LFT very high, HBsAg, HBeAg, Anti-HBc IgM + IgG
- LFT slightly raised, HBsAg, Anti-HBc IgG,
(maybe HBeAg, Anti-HBe, Anti-HBc IgM) - Anti-HBs, Anti-HBc IgG
- Anti-HBs
- HBsAg
- HBeAg
- Anti-HBs
- Fulminant hepatic failure, cirrhosis, HCC, cholangiocarcinoma, membranous nephropathy, polyarteritis nodosa
- Avoid alcohol, immunise sexual contacts, antivirals if chronic liver inflammation (ALT >30), cirrhosis, or HBV DNA
Wilson’s disease / hepatolenticular degeneration
- Inheritance pattern
- What it is
- Pathophysiology
- Presentation
- Signs
- Urine test + result
- Blood tests + results
- Diagnostic test
- Further investigations
- Management - lifestyle
- Management - other
- Autosomal recessive
- Disorder of copper secretion; excess builds up in liver and CNS (basal ganglia) instead of secreted into bile
- Copper transporting ATPase (ATP7B) doesn’t incorporate copper into caeruloplasmin
- Liver disease (children), CNS failure e.g. Parkinsonism (adults), low mood, low cognition
- Kayser-Fleischer rings, haemolytic anaemia, blue lunulae (nails), hypermobile joints, arthritis, grey skin, osteopaenia, renal tubular acidosis
- 24 hour copper secretion is HIGH
- Serum caeruloplasmin/copper LOW
- Molecular genetic testing
- Slit lamp, liver biopsy, MRI brain
- Avoid high copper foods (chocolate, nuts, mushrooms, legumes, shellfish), check water sources
- Lifelong penicillamine, transplant, screen siblings
Hereditary haemochromatosis
- What is it (+ locations affected)
- Responsible genes
- Presentation (early) - in 40s
- Presentation (late)
- Blood tests
- Diagnostic test
- Imaging
- Management - 1st line
- Management - if cannot tolerate 1st line
- Complications
- High intestinal iron absorption, causing iron deposits in joints, liver, heart, pancreas, pituitary, adrenals + skin
- HFE (C282Y, H63D)
- Tiredness, arthralgia (including pseudogout), low libido
- Slate grey skin, signs of chronic liver disease, DM (iron in pancreas), hypogonadism (pituitary dysfunction)
- High LFT, ferritin + transferritin saturation, TIBC low
- HFE genotyping
- Joints (chondrocalcinosis), liver/cardiac MRI (iron overload)
- Venesection 0.5-2 units every 1-2 weeks until ferritin <50, then lifelong monthly venesection
- Desferrioxamine
- T1DM, liver cirrhosis/HCC, cardiomyopathy, hypothyroid
Alpha 1 antitrypsin (A1AT) deficiency
- Organs affected and pathology
- What is A1AT
- Name for deficiency of this type
- Commonest cause of liver disease in which patient cohort
- Symptoms
- Blood tests
- Lung function tests
- Liver biopsy results
- Management
- Lungs (basal emphysema) from 30yo, liver (cirrhosis, HCC) from 50yo
- Serine protease inhibitor (control inflammatory cascades
- Serpinopathy
- Children
- Dyspnoea, cirrhosis, cholestatic jaundice
- Low serum A1AT (but part of acute phase response so may rise to normal in inflammation)
- FEV1 low - obstructive, high-res CT diagnoses emphysema
- Periodic acid schiff (PAS) positive, diastase-resistant globules
- Stop smoking, lung/liver transplant, maybe IV A1AT
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
- Stages 1-4
- Risk factors (same as CVD/T2DM)
- Investigations - 1st and 2nd line
- Management - conservative
- Management if fibrosis (stage 3)
- NAFLD, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis, cirrhosis
- Obesity, diet, T2DM, cholesterol, age, smoking, HTN
- 1st: Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) blood test, then NAFLD fibrosis score
- Weight loss, exercise, no smoking, no alcohol, DM/BP/cholesterol control
- Vitamin E / pioglitazone (via liver specialist)