Streba Letiția Adela Maria, Vere Cristin Constantin, Streba Costin Teodor, Ciurea Marius Eugen
Letiția Adela Maria Streba, Cristin Constantin Vere, Internal Medicine-Medical Semiology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Craiova, 200639 Craiova, Romania.
World J Gastroenterol. 2014 Jul 7;20(25):8040-7. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i25.8040.
Abusive alcohol intake currently ranks as a major cause of liver disease, and is associated with significant mortality worldwide. Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) generically defines liver abnormalities ranging from liver steatosis to the end-stages of disease such as liver cirrhosis. Information regarding the precise incidence and prevalence of ALD is still limited by a lack of large population-based studies and by the absence of large systematic reviews of all epidemiological data available. However, existing collected data show an overall increase in the number of alcohol abusers and alcohol-related liver disease. The burden exerted on medical systems worldwide is significant, with hospitalization and management costs rising constantly over the years. A great number of all cirrhosis-related deaths in Europe and a significant percentage worldwide are associated with alcohol consumption. The main possible risk factors for ALD are the amount and duration of alcohol abuse, patterns of drinking and the type of alcoholic beverage consumed. However, ALD does not progress to cirrhosis in all patients, therefore a series of additional factors are implicated. Even though insufficiently studied, genetic factors are generally regarded as highly important, and the presence of comorbidities and dietary habits seem to play a role in disease onset and progression. This lack of clear pathophysiological data further translates in the absence of definite treatment for ALD and shall prove challenging in the coming years. In this article, we aimed to briefly review epidemiologic data on the burden of ALD, risk factors, clinical and nosographic as well as therapeutic aspects of this disease. Without attempting to be exhaustive, this short topic highlight emphasizes each point and may serve as a general guidance tool in the complicated literature related to ALD.
目前，酗酒是肝病的主要病因之一，在全球范围内与高死亡率相关。酒精性肝病（ALD）通常定义了从肝脂肪变性到肝硬化等疾病终末期的肝脏异常情况。由于缺乏大规模的基于人群的研究以及对所有现有流行病学数据的大型系统综述，关于ALD确切发病率和患病率的信息仍然有限。然而，现有的收集数据显示，酗酒者和酒精相关肝病的数量总体上有所增加。多年来，全球医疗系统承受的负担巨大，住院和管理成本不断上升。在欧洲，所有与肝硬化相关的死亡中有很大一部分，在全球范围内这一比例也相当可观，都与饮酒有关。ALD的主要潜在风险因素包括酗酒的量和持续时间、饮酒模式以及所饮用酒精饮料的类型。然而，并非所有ALD患者都会发展为肝硬化，因此还涉及一系列其他因素。尽管研究不足，但遗传因素通常被认为非常重要，合并症的存在和饮食习惯似乎在疾病的发生和发展中起作用。这种缺乏明确病理生理数据的情况进一步导致了ALD缺乏确切的治疗方法，并且在未来几年将被证明具有挑战性。在本文中，我们旨在简要回顾关于ALD负担、风险因素、临床和疾病分类以及该疾病治疗方面的流行病学数据。本简短的主题重点并不试图详尽无遗，而是强调每个要点，并可作为与ALD相关的复杂文献中的一般指导工具。
