A clinico-pathological study of 163 untreated cases of chronic hepatitis C

• Published in: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
• Main Authors: Joachim Graf, Kan Toriyama, Hideyo Itakura
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 1996
• Subjects: Hepatite crônica C; Lesão de dueto biliar; Agregado linfóide; Histopatologia; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Arctic; The Portal
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0037-86821996000100005; https://doaj.org/article/e42e05d440b349409358ac11f372a200

We performed a clinico-pathological study of 163 untreated cases of chronic hepatitis C. Eighty five percent of the patients were clinically asymptomatic and their physical examinations sbowed unremarkable or minimal changes at the time of the liver biopsy Liver function tests tended to present slight abnormalities, involving mild elevations of the activity of the aminotransferases and gamma-glutamil transferase levels. In spite of these mild abnormalities advanced chronic liver disease ivas histologically detected in eighty nine percent of the patients, mainly showing chronic active hepatitis. The most characteristic histological finding ivas an interlobular bile duct damage which correlated with the presence of tymphoid aggregates in the portal tracts and with the development of fibrosis.