"might be an alternative to liver biopsy both in hepatitis B and C. Liver biopsy will likely remain particularly important in the diagnosis of unexplained liver disease. Non-invasive tests for liver fibrosis in alcoholic, nonalcoholic and viral liver diseases are likely to become more widely used. Liver biopsies may be taken percutaneously (via a needle through the skin), transvenously (through the blood vessels), endoscopically (through endoscopic ultrasound fine needle biopsy), or directly during abdominal surgery. The sample is examined by microscope, and may be processed further by immunohistochemistry, determination of iron and copper content, and microbiological culture if tuberculosis is"
"Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, abdominal pain, and yellow tinged skin occurs. The virus persists in the liver in about 75% to 85% of those initially infected. Early on chronic infection typically has no symptoms. Over many years however, it often leads to liver disease and occasionally cirrhosis. In some cases, those with cirrhosis will develop complications such as liver failure, liver cancer, or dilated blood vessels in the"
"the process of studying mouse models. Hepatitis C Hepatitis C is an infectious disease caused by the hepatitis C virus (HCV) that primarily affects the liver. During the initial infection people often have mild or no symptoms. Occasionally a fever, dark urine, abdominal pain, and yellow tinged skin occurs. The virus persists in the liver in about 75% to 85% of those initially infected. Early on chronic infection typically has no symptoms. Over many years however, it often leads to liver disease and occasionally cirrhosis. In some cases, those with cirrhosis will develop complications such as liver failure, liver cancer,"
"esophageal veins. In severe cirrhosis, a liver transplant may be an option. Cirrhosis affected about 2.8 million people and resulted in 1.3 million deaths in 2015. Of these, alcohol caused 348,000, hepatitis C caused 326,000, and hepatitis B caused 371,000. In the United States, more men die of cirrhosis than women. The first known description of the condition is by Hippocrates in the 5th century BCE. The word ""cirrhosis"" is from ; ""kirrhos"" ""yellowish"" and ""-osis"" (-) meaning ""condition"", describing the appearance of a cirrhotic liver. Cirrhosis has many possible manifestations. These signs and symptoms may be either a direct"
"still a fivefold increased risk of death in all disease categories. The word ""cirrhosis"" is a neologism derived from Greek ""kirrhós"" meaning ""yellowish, tawny"" (the orange-yellow colour of the diseased liver) and the suffix ""-osis"", i.e. ""condition"" in medical terminology. While the clinical entity was known before, it was René Laennec who gave it this name (in the same 1819 work in which he also described the stethoscope). Cirrhosis Cirrhosis is a condition in which the liver does not function properly due to long-term damage. This damage is characterized by the replacement of normal liver tissue by scar tissue. Typically,"
"liver disease, associated with decompensation and associated with the cause. Note that ""other diseases can involve the liver"" and cause hepatomegaly but would not be considered part of the spectrum of chronic liver disease. Some examples of this would include chronic cancers with liver metastases, infiltrative haematological disorders such as chronic lymphoproliferative conditions, chronic myeloid leukaemias, myelofibrosis and metabolic abnormalities such as Gaucher's disease and glycogen storage diseases. The list of conditions ""associated"" with chronic liver disease is extensive and can be categorised in the following way: Viral causes Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein Barr virus (EBV), and yellow fever viruses cause"
"C, can induce a chronic viral infection that leads to liver cancer in 0.47% of hepatitis B patients per year (especially in Asia, less so in North America), and in 1.4% of hepatitis C carriers per year. Liver cirrhosis, whether from chronic viral hepatitis infection or alcoholism, is associated with the development of liver cancer, and the combination of cirrhosis and viral hepatitis presents the highest risk of liver cancer development. Worldwide, liver cancer is one of the most common, and most deadly, cancers due to a huge burden of viral hepatitis transmission and disease. Through advances in cancer research,"
"treat infections such as hepatitis B. Other conditions may be managed by slowing down disease progression, for example: Liver disease Liver disease (also called hepatic disease) is a type of damage to or disease of the liver. There are more than a hundred different kinds of liver disease. Symptoms may include jaundice and weight loss. These are some of the most common: Liver disease can occur through several mechanisms. One general mechanism, increased DNA damage, is shared by some of the major causes of liver disease. These major causes include infection by hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus, alcohol"
"each year (more in Asia, fewer in North America), and in about 1 in 45 of people infected with hepatitis C each year. People with chronic hepatitis B infection are more than 200 times more likely to develop liver cancer than uninfected people. Liver cirrhosis, whether from chronic viral hepatitis infection or alcohol abuse or some other cause, is independently associated with the development of liver cancer, and the combination of cirrhosis and viral hepatitis presents the highest risk of liver cancer development. Because chronic viral hepatitis is so common, and liver cancer so deadly, liver cancer is one of"
"C virus leads to more severe disease with faster progression to cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and increased mortality. Obesity increases the likelihood of progression to cirrhosis in individuals with alcoholic hepatitis. It is estimated that a high proportion of individuals (70%) who have AH will progress to cirrhosis. Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is projected to become the top reason for liver transplantation in the United States by the year 2020, supplanting chronic liver disease due to hepatitis C. About 20–45% of the U.S. population have NAFLD and 6% have NASH. The estimated prevalence of NASH in the world is 3–5%. Of NASH"
"(nodular). In this stage, the liver shrinks even further. It may not extend below the costal margin at all. Liver cells attempt to regenerate in an increasingly fibrotic setting. They find it difficult to do so and form ""regenerative nodules"" that only partially carry out normal liver function. This shrunken, nodular texture has been dubbed the ""hob-nail"" or ""cobble stone"" effect. Laennec's cirrhosis Laennec's cirrhosis, also known as portal cirrhosis, alcoholic cirrhosis, fatty cirrhosis, or atrophic cirrhosis, is named after René Laennec, a French physician and the inventor of the stethoscope. It is a disease of the liver in which"
"N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), is the treatment of choice for acetaminophen overdose; both NAC and milk-thistle (Silybum marianum) or its derivative silibinin are used in liver poisoning from certain mushrooms, notably Amanita phalloides, although the use of milk-thistle is controversial. Some common herbs are known or suspected to be harmful to the liver, including black cohosh, ma huang, chaparral, comfrey, germander, greater celandine, kava, mistletoe, pennyroyal, skull cap and valerian. Chronic liver disease Chronic liver disease in the clinical context is a disease process of the liver that involves a process of progressive destruction and regeneration of the liver parenchyma leading"
"have hepatitis C virus in the liver on biopsy. How commonly this occurs in children is unknown. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small, enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus. It is a member of the genus ""Hepacivirus"" in the family ""Flaviviridae"". There are seven major genotypes of HCV, which are known as genotypes one to seven. The genotypes are divided into several subtypes with the number of subtypes depending on the genotype. In the United States, about 70% of cases are caused by genotype 1, 20% by genotype 2 and about 1% by each of the other genotypes. Genotype"
"negative connotations of alcoholism. Patient and professional groups were canvassed. Support for the name change came from professional bodies including the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the European Association for the Study of the Liver. Advocates for the name change published calls to adopt the new name in multiple hepatology journals in the fall of 2015. Primary biliary cholangitis Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), previously known as primary biliary cirrhosis, is an autoimmune disease of the liver. It results from a slow, progressive destruction of the small bile ducts of the liver, causing bile and other toxins"
"these infections are hepatitis A, B, C, D, and E. Some of these infections are sexually transmitted. Inflammation can also be caused by other viruses in the family Herpesviridae such as the ""herpes simplex virus"". Chronic (rather than acute) infection with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus is the main cause of liver cancer. Globally, about 248 million individuals are chronically infected with HBV (with 843,724 in the U.S.) and 142 million are chronically infected with HCV (with 2.7 million in the U.S.). Globally there are about 114 million and 20 million cases of hepatitis A and hepatitis E"
"the United States. The word ""hepatic"" is from the Greek ""hêpar"", meaning ""liver"". The most frequent liver cancer, accounting for approximately 75% of all primary liver cancers, is hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (also named ""hepatoma"", which is a misnomer because adenomas are usually benign). HCC is a cancer formed by liver cells, known as hepatocytes, that become malignant. Another type of cancer formed by liver cells is hepatoblastoma, which is specifically formed by immature liver cells.<ref name=""doi10.1016/j.mpsur.2008.12.005""></ref> It is a rare malignant tumor that primarily develops in children, and accounts for approximately 1% of all cancers in children and 79% of"
"a primary cancer of the liver and is more common in men than in women. The disease occurs mostly in people who have scarring of the liver (cirrhosis) or after infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C. Symptoms include pain and swelling in the abdomen, weight loss, weakness, loss of appetite and nausea. Hepatocellular carcinoma is a severe and life-threatening disease that is associated with poor overall survival. While the choice of treatment depends mainly on how advanced the disease is, the only proven therapies to cure the cancer is surgery to remove the tumor and liver transplantation, but these"
"Hepatitis C virus Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a small (55–65 nm in size), enveloped, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus of the family ""Flaviviridae"". Hepatitis C virus is the cause of hepatitis C and some cancers such as liver cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma, abbreviated HCC) and lymphomas in humans. The hepatitis C virus belongs to the genus ""Hepacivirus"", a member of the family ""Flaviviridae"". Until recently it was considered to be the only member of this genus. However a member of this genus has been discovered in dogs: canine hepacivirus. There is also at least one virus in this genus that infects"
"Hepatitis E Hepatitis E is inflammation of the liver caused by infection with the hepatitis E virus. It is one of five known human hepatitis viruses: A, B, C, D, and E. HEV is a positive-sense, single-stranded, nonenveloped, RNA icosahedral virus; HEV has a fecal-oral transmission route. Infection with this virus was first documented in 1955 during an outbreak in New Delhi, India. A preventive vaccine (HEV 239) is approved for use in China. Although hepatitis E often causes an acute and self-limiting infection (the viral infection is temporary and the individual recovers) with low death rates in the western"
"have higher levels of deoxycholic acid (DCA), a product of bile acid alteration by certain gut microbes, and these microbes are increased with obesity. The excess DCA causes DNA damage and inflammation in the liver, which, in turn, can lead to liver cancer. A common form of liver disease is viral infection. Viral hepatitides such as Hepatitis B virus and Hepatitis C virus can be vertically transmitted during birth via contact with infected blood. According to a 2012 NICE publication, ""about 85% of hepatitis B infections in newborns become chronic"". In occult cases, Hepatitis B virus is present by HBV"
"in the body. Among cancers that originate from liver tissue, HCC is the most common primary liver cancer. In the United States, the US surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database program, shows that HCC accounts for 65% of all cases of liver cancers. As screening programs are in place for high-risk persons with chronic liver disease, HCC is often discovered much earlier in Western countries than in developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. Acute and chronic hepatic porphyrias (acute intermittent porphyria, porphyria cutanea tarda, hereditary coproporphyria, variegate porphyria) and tyrosinemia type I are risk factors for hepatocellular carcinoma. The diagnosis"
", liver cancer resulted in 754,000 deaths, up from 460,000 in 1990, making it the third leading cause of cancer death after lung and stomach. In 2012, it represented 7% of cancer diagnoses in men, the 5th most diagnosed cancer that year. Of these deaths 340,000 were secondary to hepatitis B, 196,000 were secondary to hepatitis C, and 150,000 were secondary to alcohol. HCC, the most common form of liver cancer, shows a striking geographical distribution. China has 50% of HCC cases globally, and more than 80% of total cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa or in East-Asia due to hepatitis"
"Liver tumor Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver (medical terms pertaining to the liver often start in ""hepato-"" or ""hepatic"" from the Greek word for liver, ""hepar""). Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant (cancerous). They may be discovered on medical imaging (even for a different reason than the cancer itself), or may be present in patients as an abdominal mass, hepatomegaly, abdominal pain, jaundice, or some other liver dysfunction. There are"
"worse and is eventually fatal. With early detection and treatment, most of those affected can live relatively normal lives. Liver and neurologic damage that occurs prior to treatment may improve, but it is often permanent. The disease bears the name of the British physician Samuel Alexander Kinnier Wilson (1878–1937), a neurologist who described the condition, including the pathological changes in the brain and liver, in 1912. Wilson's work had been predated by, and drew on, reports from German neurologist Carl Westphal (in 1883), who termed it ""pseudosclerosis""; by the British neurologist William Gowers (in 1888); and by Adolph Strümpell (in"
"Cirrhosis Cirrhosis is a condition in which the liver does not function properly due to long-term damage. This damage is characterized by the replacement of normal liver tissue by scar tissue. Typically, the disease develops slowly over months or years. Early on, there are often no symptoms. As the disease worsens, a person may become tired, weak, itchy, have swelling in the lower legs, develop yellow skin, bruise easily, have fluid build up in the abdomen, or develop spider-like blood vessels on the skin. The fluid build-up in the abdomen may become spontaneously infected. Other complications include hepatic encephalopathy, bleeding"
"colon cancer and carcinoid tumors mainly of the appendix), but also from breast cancer, ovarian cancer, lung cancer, renal cancer, prostate cancer. Because liver cancer is an umbrella term for many types of cancer, the signs and symptoms depend on what type of cancer is present. Cholangiocarcinoma is associated with sweating, jaundice, abdominal pain, weight loss and liver enlargement. Hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with abdominal mass, abdominal pain, emesis, anemia, back pain, jaundice, itching, weight loss and fever. Viral infection with either hepatitis C virus (HCV) or Hepatitis B virus (HBV) is the chief cause of liver cancer in the"
"The most common types are hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), which makes up 80% of cases, and cholangiocarcinoma. Less common types include mucinous cystic neoplasm and intraductal papillary biliary neoplasm. The diagnosis may be supported by blood tests and medical imaging with confirmation by tissue biopsy. Preventive efforts include immunization against hepatitis B and treating those infected with hepatitis B or C. Screening is recommended in those with chronic liver disease. Treatment options may include surgery, targeted therapy, and radiation therapy. In certain cases ablation therapy, embolization therapy, or liver transplantation may be used. Small lumps in the liver may be closely"
"Fatty liver disease Fatty liver disease (FLD), also known as hepatic steatosis, is a condition where excess fat builds up in the liver. There are two types non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic liver disease. NAFLD is made up of simple fatty liver and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Risk factors for NAFLD include diabetes, obesity, and older age. The condition is also associated with other diseases that influence fat metabolism. It is difficult to distinguish alcoholic FLD, which is part of alcoholic liver disease, from nonalcoholic FLD (NAFLD), and both show microvesicular and macrovesicular fatty changes at different stages. Fatty"
"""Acute on chronic liver failure"" is said to exist when someone with chronic liver disease develops features of liver failure. A number of underlying causes may precipitate this, such as alcohol misuse or infection. People with ACLF can be critically ill and require intensive care treatment, and occasionally a liver transplant. Mortality with treatment is 50%. Liver failure Liver failure or hepatic insufficiency is the inability of the liver to perform its normal synthetic and metabolic function as part of normal physiology. Two forms are recognised, acute and chronic. Recently a third form of liver failure known as acute-on-chronic liver"
"used. The current name at present is autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). Autoimmune hepatitis Autoimmune hepatitis, formerly called lupoid hepatitis, is a chronic, autoimmune disease of the liver that occurs when the body's immune system attacks liver cells causing the liver to be inflamed. Common initial symptoms include fatigue or muscle aches or signs of acute liver inflammation including fever, jaundice, and right upper quadrant abdominal pain. Individuals with autoimmune hepatitis often have no initial symptoms and the disease is detected by abnormal liver function tests. Anomalous presentation of MHC class II receptors on the surface of liver cells, possibly due to"
"Hepatocellular carcinoma Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of primary liver cancer in adults, and is the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis. It occurs in the setting of chronic liver inflammation, and is most closely linked to chronic viral hepatitis infection (hepatitis B or C) or exposure to toxins such as alcohol or aflatoxin. Certain diseases, such as hemochromatosis and alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, markedly increase the risk of developing HCC. Metabolic syndrome and NASH are also increasingly recognized as risk factors for HCC. As with any cancer, the treatment and prognosis of HCC vary"
"Laennec's cirrhosis Laennec's cirrhosis, also known as portal cirrhosis, alcoholic cirrhosis, fatty cirrhosis, or atrophic cirrhosis, is named after René Laennec, a French physician and the inventor of the stethoscope. It is a disease of the liver in which the normal lobular architecture is lost, with fibrosis (scarring) and later nodular regeneration. Laennec's cirrhosis can be associated with inflammatory polyarthritis, most commonly affecting the shoulders, elbows and knees. Osteoporosis, soft tissue swelling in peripheral joints and sometimes calcific periathritis are seen. In the developed world, Laennec's cirrhosis most commonly affects middle-aged males, typically ages 40–60. This is the most common"
"route and is indicative of a breakdown in food safety or potable water protection, hepatitis B, C and HIV are spread by contact with bodily fluids, most frequently blood, although in the case of HIV, not exclusively so. Also, unlike hepatitis A in which the sufferer almost always recovers completely, or rarely dies, both hepatitis B and C often give rise to chronic carrier states and indolent disease in many. At present, Hepatitis C is the most common reason for liver transplantation in the US while HIV is currently incurable although its clinical course can be modified. In any case,"