Asymptomatic liver disease in alcoholics.

Several types of histologic changes of the liver have been found in 116 of 154 chronic alcoholics who showed no symptoms of organic liver disease and were admitted to a department of psychiatry for treatment of their addiction. No relation was found either between the nature of the hepatic damage and the duration of alcoholism or with the presence of degree of clinical and biochemical disturbances. Results of clinical and biochemical examination of 55 patients with histologic abnormalities were normal, and these patients were considered as apparently healthy alcoholics. Liver biopsy specimens from 61 to 69 asymptomatic alcoholics, who had abnormalities on clinical and/or biochemical investigation, showed hepatic damage under light microscopy, but specimens from the other eight were histologically normal. Conventional liver function tests have limited value in detecting the existence and severity of liver injury, while liver biopsy specimens may reveal a large range of abnormalities in asymptomatic alcoholics.