[Pseudo-alcoholic cirrhosis]

Abstract

Alcohol-like liver disease may be observed in patients with obesity or non insulin-dependent diabetes, or after treatment with such antianginal drugs as amiodarone and perhexiline maleate. In such cases cirrhosis is associated, at histology, with foci of acidophilic necroris, Mallory's bodies and inflammatory neutrophilic infiltrates. Alcohol-like liver disease is rare. It affects mostly women in their fifties and usually is clinically latent. Abnormalities of liver function tests mainly consist of increased serum aminotransferase levels. Complications of portal hypertension are uncommon. The pathogenesis of the disease remains purely hypothetical. In practice, in the absence of antianginal therapy the finding of cirrhosis in an obese and/or diabetic patient should prompt a search for excessive alcohol consumption before ascribing the cirrhosis to obesity and/or diabetes.