Cryptogenic cirrhosis: clinico-biochemical comparison with alcoholic and viral etiologies.

Cryptogenic cirrhosis defines a group of undetermined etiology that would either be caused by factors as alcohol, virus and others or be due to still unknown etiological factors. To test these hypotheses we have looked for similarities or differences in clinico-biochemical presentation of 196 cases of alcoholic, viral and cryptogenic cirrhosis. Age, jaundice, spiders, palmar erythema and factor V showed a statistically significant difference of the cryptogenic cirrhosis when compared with both alcoholic and viral etiologies. On clinico-biochemical grounds it could be suggested that cryptogenic cirrhosis would constitute a discrete group, based on the following parameters: predominance of females, a more advanced age, less marked peripheral signs of chronic hepatic failure (jaundice, spiders and palmar erythema) besides milder alterations of laboratory liver function tests.