Overview
Liver disease is a general term for all diseases that occur in the liver. They include infectious diseases, neoplastic diseases, vascular diseases, metabolic diseases, toxic diseases, autoimmune diseases, genetic diseases, and intrahepatic bile duct stone disease. Infectious diseases also include viral infections, bacterial infections, and parasitic infections, such as viral hepatitis and hepatic cysticercosis. Tumors are divided into benign and malignant tumors, such as hepatocellular carcinoma, hepatic hemangioma, hepatic lipoma, hepatic sarcoma and so on.
Etiology
Causes of liver diseases include viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, improper diet, alcohol consumption, stones and other diseases involving the liver. Viral infections such as viral hepatitis A, viral hepatitis B, viral hepatitis C, etc.; parasitic infections are most common, such as hepatic echinococcosis; alcoholic hepatitis is easily triggered by prolonged and heavy drinking; high-fat diet can lead to fatty liver.
Symptoms
There are many kinds of liver diseases, and the clinical manifestations of different diseases are also different.
1. Liver injury
The most common manifestation is abdominal pain radiating to the right shoulder, which may be accompanied by nausea and vomiting, and may lead to shock when there is a lot of bleeding. Infection secondary to liver injury can lead to liver abscess.
2. Liver infectious disease
Common symptoms include jaundice, fever, epigastric cramps, and pain radiating to the back of shoulder. Patients with amebic liver abscess may present with diarrhea and mucous blood stools, lack of appetite, malnutrition and so on. Patients with hepatic tuberculosis have prolonged low fever, night sweats, fatigue, lack of appetite, pain in the liver area and abnormal liver function.
3. Liver cancer
Early manifestation of liver cancer is not obvious, but when the tumor is large or the disease progresses to middle or late stage, there may be epigastric discomfort, pain, fever, fatigue, nausea, lack of appetite, abdominal distension, jaundice, ascites and so on.
4. Benign liver tumor
Common symptoms include abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, epigastric discomfort, etc. There are no specific symptoms.
Examination
Laboratory examination can detect abnormal liver function, ultrasonography, CT examination, magnetic resonance imaging examination can know the exact shape of the liver, boundary, surface smoothness, nature of intrahepatic cysts, nature of intrahepatic nodules, and so on. Histopathology and cytopathology can be used to make qualitative diagnosis of the puncture material of liver puncture and ascites puncture.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis is clarified through comprehensive judgment of history, clinical manifestations and auxiliary examinations, such as primary hepatocellular carcinoma needs to be differentiated from secondary hepatocellular carcinoma. Several kinds of viral hepatitis should be clearly diagnosed by viral testing, and bacterial liver abscess should be bacterial culture of pus.
Questions you may be concerned about
Is high alkaline phosphatase a liver disease
High alkaline phosphatase may be a liver disease, or it may be caused by normal physiological conditions, or it may be caused by other diseases such as biliary tract diseases and endocrine diseases.
Alkaline phosphatase is an enzyme found in human tissues such as the liver, bones, intestines, kidneys and placenta. Physiologically, it is elevated mainly in relation to bone growth, development, maturation, pregnancy and postprandial secretion of fats.
Pathologically, it can be seen in liver diseases, such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, etc.; it can also be seen in biliary system diseases, such as intrahepatic cholestasis, bile duct obstruction caused by bile duct stones, etc.; and it can also be seen in bone diseases, such as rickets, osteochondritis dissecans, fibrositis ossificans. In addition, severe anemia, malnutrition, colonic ulcer, heavy metal poisoning, etc., can also cause high alkaline phosphatase.
Endocrine diseases, such as primary or secondary hyperthyroidism and tumors that can produce bone destruction, can cause high alkaline phosphatase.
If high alkaline phosphatase is detected, it should be taken seriously, and prompt medical attention should be given to identify the cause of the disease and further management or treatment as prescribed by the doctor.
Treatment
The principle of treatment is to address the cause of the disease, reduce symptoms, avoid complications, and give nutritional support to improve the prognosis.
Questions you may be concerned about
Is it good for preventing liver diseases if you drink herbal tea?
Yin Chen tea has the effect of clearing dampness and heat and relieving bile and jaundice, which is good for regulating liver diseases. However, if there is no indications for Yin Chen, it is generally not recommended to blindly drink tea made of Yin Chen to prevent liver diseases, and the use of Chinese herbs should be in accordance with medical advice.
The medicinal source of Yin Chen is the dried above-ground part of the plant Artemisia annua or Artemisia capillaris of the family Asteraceae, which can be decocted, or decocted soup and fumigation, slightly cold in nature, and its effect is to clear dampness and heat and relieve bile to reduce yellowing, which can be used for jaundice with little urine, dampness and warmth (warmth and heat caused by feeling dampness and warmth), summer dampness, and wet sores and itchy disease treatment.
Herbal tea precipitated less medicinal ingredients, so the efficacy, limited role, can not replace the drug treatment of disease.
It is important to note that Yin Chen should be used with caution for those who accumulate blood and have yellowish blood and those who have blood deficiency and yellowish blood. In addition, the use of Chinese herbs should be carried out under the guidance of the doctor’s diagnosis, do not blindly use Chinese herbs without authorization.