Liver Cirrhosis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Liver Cirrhosis, including details on alcohol, treatment, drugs, effects, causes.

Morphology of alcoholic liver disease.

Lefkowitch JH

Columbia University, Department of Surgical Pathology, PH 1564W, 630 W 168th Streest, VC 14th Floor, Room 215, New York, NY 10032, USA. jhl3@columbia.edu

The major pathologic manifestations of alcoholic liver injury have been well described, and include three major lesions: steatosis (fatty liver), steatohepatitis (formerly alcoholic hepatitis), and cirrhosis. Recent attention to the problem of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in individuals with obesity, diabetes, and other risk factors has shed light on the mechanisms of cellular injury associated with hepatic steatosis and on the potential pathways to steatohepatitis and cirrhosis. Pathologists need to be familiar with the spectrum of changes seen in steatohepatitis, including hepatocyte ballooning, Mallory bodies, mixed inflammatory cell infiltrates, and a distinctive perivenular and pericellular "chicken-wire" fibrosis. These features and other less common histopathologic lesions in the liver are reviewed and illustrated.

Published 14 March 2005 in Clin Liver Dis, 9(1): 37-53.
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