Diseases of the liver and biliary tract

Chronic hepatitis C: treatment

Chronic hepatitis C treatment involves a complex. Therapy for this disease includes etiological, pathogenetic and symptomatic treatment.

Chronic hepatitis C: diagnosis

Diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C is based on laboratory tests, instrumental methods and differential diagnostics.

Chronic hepatitis C: symptoms

Chronic hepatitis C has sluggish symptoms. These signs last for many years. An acute attack usually goes unrecognized and occurs without clinical symptoms that could predict chronicity. However, 80% of patients develop chronic hepatitis and 20% develop liver cirrhosis.

Chronic hepatitis C: causes

The cause of chronic hepatitis C is the hepatitis C virus, which was identified in 1989 by Houghton et al. The hepatitis C virus often leads to the development of chronic hepatitis, which can progress to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular cancer. The transition from acute viral hepatitis C to chronic is observed in 50-80%.

Chronic hepatitis C

Chronic hepatitis C is in most cases a consequence of acute hepatitis. Compared to other hepatitis viruses, the hepatitis C virus has quite strong chroniogenic properties.

Chronic hepatitis B: treatment

Treatment of chronic viral hepatitis B is aimed at suppressing contagiousness, destroying the virus, preventing the development of liver cirrhosis and, possibly, hepatocellular carcinoma. No treatment method rids the patient of the virus, however, successful antiviral therapy can reduce the severity of the process and the resulting necrosis of hepatocytes.

Chronic hepatitis B: diagnosis

The presence of the hepatitis B virus in hepatocytes can be suspected by the presence of frosted glassy hepatocytes when examining preparations stained with hematoxylin and eosin or using the Van Gieson method.

Chronic hepatitis B: symptoms

Chronic hepatitis B can be diagnosed in donors during blood donation or routine blood screening based on the detection of HBsAg and moderate elevations in serum transaminase activity.

Chronic hepatitis B: stages of HBV infection

In the life of the hepatitis B virus, two periods are distinguished - the period of virus replication, accompanied by the activity of the inflammatory process in the liver, and the period of virus integration, during which the activity of inflammation subsides and the remission phase of the disease begins (inactive phase). The marker of the replication phase is HBeAg.

Chronic hepatitis B

Chronic hepatitis is not always preceded by a recognizable acute form of hepatitis B. However, sometimes chronicization occurs immediately after an acute episode. In other cases, despite the sudden onset similar to the acute disease, chronic hepatitis has already occurred.