[Hepatopathy of the drug addict. Morphological data and incidence of serological markers of hepatitis B virus in 65 patients].

65 heroin addicts who had previously underwent liver biopsy for liver disease were studied retrospectively; the histological features of liver disease and hepatitis B serological markers were analyzed in detail. Alcohol abuse was rare in this group (6.1%), but moderate or occasional use of mild alcoholic beverages was common. The liver biopsy examination showed that 35 (54%) had chronic active hepatitis, 21 (32%) had non specific reactive hepatitis, 6 (9%) had acute hepatitis and 3 (5%) had chronic persistent hepatitis. Steatosis was present in 41% of all biopsies. 19 subjects were HBsAg positive, and in 60 (92.3%) at least one marker of HBV was found. Observation of liver biopsy specimen under polarized light did not disclose the presence of birefringent material consistent with talc or other inorganic material. These results suggest that HBV infection is responsible for liver disease in heroin addicts in the great majority of cases.