CONTEXT Alcohol is the major aetiological agent for both chronic pancreatitis and alcoholic liver disease. However, as only a minority of alcoholics develop either chronic pancreatitis or alcoholic liver disease, there are clearly genetic or environmental cofactors that determine individual susceptibility to these diseases. OBJECTIVE To determine whether polymorphisms of the TNF gene may acco...

Alcohol dehydrogenase activity was measured in samples of liver tissue from a group of alcoholic and non-alcoholic subjects to determine whether decreased liver alcohol dehydrogenase activity is a consequence of ethanol consumption or liver damage. The alcoholic patients were classified further into the following groups: control subjects with no liver disease (group 1), subjects with non-cirrho...

INTRODUCTION Uganda is among the top ten consumers of alcohol worldwide though there is little data on alcohol related liver disease. We describe alcohol use, alcohol misuse, and alcoholic liver disease among adults at the emergency admission service of a large urban hospital in Uganda. METHODS All adults who consented were prospectively evaluated for alcohol use by inquiry and alcohol misuse...

BACKGROUND & AIMS To evaluate the risk of depressive disorders among non-alcoholic patients by using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). METHODS We conducted a retrospective study of a matched cohort of 52 725 participants (10 545 non-alcoholic cirrhotic patients and 42 180 control patients) who were selected from the NHIRD. Patients were observed for a maximum of ...

BACKGROUND The effect of commonly ingested alcoholic beverages on gastric acid output and release of gastrin in humans is unknown. AIM AND METHODS In 16 healthy humans the effect of some commonly ingested alcoholic beverages produced by fermentation plus distillation (for example, whisky, cognac, calvados, armagnac, and rum) or by alcoholic fermentation (beer, wine, champagne, martini, and sh...

AIMS To determine whether the functional polymorphism -592C>A of the interleukin (IL)-10 gene (IL10) influences the development of alcoholic liver disease or alcoholism in alcoholic Spanish subjects. METHODS The -592C>A IL10 polymorphism was analyzed by the polymerase chain reaction and digestion with restriction enzymes in 257 male alcoholics [161 without alcoholic liver disease and 96 with ...

Alcoholic pancreatitis continues to stir up controversy. One of the most debated points is whether from onset it is a chronic disease or whether it progresses to a chronic form after repeated episodes of acute pancreatitis. Histological studies on patients with alcoholic pancreatitis have shown that the disease is chronic from onset and that alcoholic acute pancreatitis occurs in a pancreas alr...

Alcoholic liver disease is one of the most prevalent liver diseases worldwide, and a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Alcoholic hepatitis is a severe form of liver injury in patients with alcohol abuse, can present as an acute on chronic liver failure associated with a rapid decline in liver synthetic function, and consequent increase in mortality. Despite therapy, about 30%-50% of patie...

Using an indirect immunofluorescence technique liver membrane antibodies of IgG and IgA class have been demonstrated in a statistically significant proportion of sera from patients with alcoholic hepatitis and alcoholic cirrhosis. IgG and IgA class antibodies were found respectively in 23 and 25% of 48 patients with alcoholic hepatitis, in 27 and 33% of 84 with active cirrhosis, and 67 and 58% ...

AIMS Rats avidly consume non-alcoholic beer, and addition of alcohol to non-alcoholic beer may function as a medium to induce intake of large amounts of alcohol in rats. The present study investigated whether Sardinian alcohol-preferring (sP) and Sardinian non-preferring (sNP) rats, initially exposed to non-alcoholic beer, and subsequently to non-alcoholic beer containing increasing concentrati...