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Query: UMLS:C0023890 (cirrhosis)
 42,195 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Maximum motor and sensory nerve conduction velocities, amplitudes of muscle action potentials (surface electrodes) and of sensory nerve action potentials, and needle electromyograms were studied in 80 patients with alcoholic neuropathy and in 5 chronic alcoholics without clinical signs of neuropathy. The electrophysiological results were compared to the clinical findings. Neurographic criteria compatible with the diagnosis "alcoholic neuropathy" were defined. Neurographic findings contrary to a diagnosis of alcoholic etiology were demonstrated in 3 patients. Only in a smaller group of patients could a reduction of conduction velocity be found, especially in regions of peripheral nerve entrapment. A decrease in conduction velocity outside of the entrapment sites can be explained in some cases by segmental demyelination in chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis of the liver.
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PMID:[Alcoholic polyneuropathy. Electrophysiological and clinical findings in 85 patients (author's transl)]. 17 Aug 84

The present study deals with 30 patients with cirrhosis of the liver and 12 patients with infective hepatitis who were studied clinically, neurophysiologically and histopathologically for the presence of neuropathy. Simultaneously, 13 healthy individuals were evaluated as controls. Clinical evidence of neuropathy was found in 63.3% of the patients with hepatic cirrhosis and in 16.6% of the patients with infective hepatitis. In hepatic cirrhosis, the conduction velocities were abnormal in 33.3% and histopathological demyelination was found in 80% of the patients. In infective hepatitis, on the other hand, altered nerve conduction velocities were found in 41.6% and segmental demyelination in 75% of the patients. Our data reveal that peripheral nerve involvement is seen both in chronic and acute liver disorders. The neuropathy in hepatic cirrhosis is unrelated to diabetes, alchoholism or portacaval shunt and may be due to unknown metabolic abnormality or to toxins. In infective hepatitis, the neuropathy may either be due to some acute metabolic derangement or may be purely viral in origin.
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PMID:Neuropathy in hepatic disorders. A clinical, electrophysiological and histopathological appraisal. 18 94

In 167 consecutive patients with various types of neuropathy, the amplitude of the sensory potential and the maximum conduction velocity along the sural nerve were compared with conduction in other sensory nerves, and were related to structural changes revealed by nerve biopsy. Electrophysiological findings in the sural nerve were similar to those in the superficial peroneal and the median nerve, though the distal segment of the median nerve was normal in 20 per cent of the patients when it was abnormal in the sural nerve. Quantitation of histological findings was a more sensitive method than the electrophysiological study in that two-thirds of 33 patients with normal electrophysiology in the sural nerve showed mild loss of fibres or signs of remyelination in teased fibres. The amplitude of the sensory potential was grossly related to the number of large myelinated fibres (more than 7 micrometer in diameter). Considering the 95 nerves from which teased fibres were obtained, maximum conduction velocity was abnormal in half. In 18 of these nerves, slowing in conduction was due to axonal degeneration: the velocity was as to be expected from the diameter of the largest fibres in the biopsy ("proportionate slowing"). In 9 nerves slowing was severe and more marked than to be expected from loss of the largest fibres ("disproportionate slowing"); these nerves showed paranodal or segmental demyelination in more than 30 per cent of the fibres. In 16 nerves from patients with neuropathy of different aetiology neither loss of fibres nor demyelination could explain the moderate slowing. The cause of slowing in these nerves is unknown; other conditions are referred to in which slowing in conduction cannot be attributed to morphological changes. Finally, electrophysiological and histological findings are reported in some patients with neuropathy associated with malignant neoplasm, with rheumatoid arthritis, with polyarteritis nodosa, with acute intermittent porphyria and with cirrhosis of the liver.
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PMID:Sensory action potentials and biopsy of the sural nerve in neuropathy. 21 63

The widespread use of ethyl alcohol suggests its potential importance in clinical medicine. There is no proven therapeutic effect in cardiac patients and its role as an etiologic factor in heart disease has been disputed over the years and attributed to coexistent malnutrition. The latter factor, however, has been dissociated from ethanol use in many patients with the cardiomyopathic form of heart failure. Major support for the role of ethanol as a toxic agent when used in large amounts for a prolonged period has been obtained in various species of animals, including the subhuman primate. Abnormalities include depression of ventricular function, and metabolic and morphologic changes that parallel the changes in humans with preclinical malfunction of the heart. While the mechanism of progression to heart failure or arrhythmias is not known, several factors may be associated. These include, particularly in males, the cumulative effects of ethanol alone or after intensified drinking episodes, simultaneous exposure to trace metals in excess, and occasional specific nutritional deficiency or superimposed infection. The low prevalence of clinical nutritional deficiency in patients with alcoholic cardiomyopathy and the infrequency of heart disease in patients with cirrhosis or neuropathy supports the view that the cardiac abnormality is commonly not dependent on malnutrition. Clinical data indicate that the cessation of alcohol intake may reverse the disease or interrupt its progression in many patients. However, the pathogenic process may continue unabated in some patients who become abstinent.
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PMID:The role of ethanol in cardiac disease. 32 69

The long-term clinical course of patients with primary Type II essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia is unclear as many reports fail to separate this group from patients with Type III disease. We have reviewed 13 patients with Type II essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia who presented to the Hammersmith Hospital between 1976 and 1990. All patients had a cryoglobulin level greater than 0.1 mg/ml (range 0.27-6.50 mg/ml), and characterization of the cryoglobulin in all cases revealed the presence of a monoclonal IgM kappa component with rheumatoid factor activity together with polyclonal IgG. All patients had evidence of activation of the classical pathway of complement with greatly reduced levels of C4, while C3 levels were moderately reduced in three patients. All patients had skin disease and joint symptoms were reported by nine patients, with erosive arthritis in one. Eight patients had peripheral sensorimotor neuropathy. Renal disease was observed in 10 patients, manifesting as raised creatinine level, proteinuria or haematuria. Renal tissue was examined in eight patients: in six the appearances were those of a mesangiocapillary glomerulonephritis Type I while in the other two patients there was a mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis, in one diffuse and in the other focal and segmental. Glomerular capillary 'hyaline thrombi' were found in six biopsies, extracapillary proliferation was found in three and evidence of vasculitis was found in all eight. Liver biopsy showed macronodular cirrhosis in one patient, while a second with recurrent episodes of jaundice showed only chronic inflammatory changes. No patient was positive for hepatitis B surface antigen; however one patient had low titre anti-hepatitis B surface antibody. Normochromic normocytic anaemia was present in nine patients. Bone marrow examination was carried out in 13 patients at presentation to our unit: 10 showed no evidence of a lymphoproliferative disorder, while three suggested the presence of a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (some years after original presentation in all three). Unusual clinical features included one patient with retinal vasculitis and one patient with severe pulmonary haemorrhage.
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PMID:Type II essential mixed cryoglobulinaemia: presentation, treatment and outcome in 13 patients. 162 Aug 12

A 62-year-old woman with hepatitis-B-surface-antigen-positive hepatic cirrhosis presented with weakness and paresthesias over the distal part of the limbs in the course of adenine arabinoside 5'-monophosphate (ARA-AMP) treatment, and recovered spontaneously after several weeks of drug withdrawal. Electrophysiological and histological studies demonstrated axonal neuropathy. Although the patient received a relatively low total dose (120 mg/kg), her age and advanced liver disease may have played a role in the ARA-AMP neurotoxicity.
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PMID:Toxic neuropathy after adenine arabinoside treatment in chronic HBsAg-positive liver disease. 168 32

This review summarizes recent progress in the knowledge of catecholamines in cirrhosis. Compensated patients have normal plasma concentration of noradrenaline. Highly elevated plasma noradrenaline concentration in decompensated patients indicates that the sympathetic nervous system is enhanced in this condition. This may especially apply to the sympathetic tone in the kidney, as evaluated by regional measurements of noradrenaline overflow. Hepatic elimination of catecholamines is only slightly reduced. Activation of the sympathetic nervous system seems to play an important role in the avid sodium-water retention and decreased kidney perfusion observed in decompensated cirrhosis. Volume- en baro-receptors are likely to elicit this overactivity. The decreased systemic arterial blood pressure may be a primary event which is in part counteracted by enhanced sympathetic nervous activity and activated renin-angiotensin system. The role of a non-volume-dependent hepatic baro-receptor, false neurotransmitters, postsynaptic receptors, and autonomous neuropathy are yet unknown issues of further research.
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PMID:Sympathetic nervous activity in cirrhosis. A survey of plasma catecholamine studies. 299 20

The hyponatraemia common in decompensated cirrhosis arises in part from secretion of antidiuretic hormone attributed to a decrease in effective blood volume. Baroreceptors send inhibitory impulses to the midbrain and hypothalamus through the vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves. Since vagal neuropathy often occurs in chronic alcoholism, this might theoretically contribute to the inappropriate secretion of antidiuretic hormone, which might in turn induce hyponatraemia. In a prospective study including 34 patients with cirrhosis a high incidence of vagal neuropathy was found in the alcoholics (64%) and a clear cut increase in the incidence of hyponatraemia in patients with evidence of vagal damage and ascites (seven of eight patients (88%); p = 0.02). Results of a retrospective study of 64 patients with cirrhosis and ascitic decompensation showed hyponatraemia in 17 (50%) of 34 alcoholics but in only four (13%) of 30 patients with non-alcoholic disease (p = 0.006). Vagal neuropathy in alcoholic cirrhosis may contribute to the low serum sodium concentrations commonly found in these patients.
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PMID:Role of vagal neuropathy in the hyponatraemia of alcoholic cirrhosis. 309 45

A clinical and electrophysiological study of neuropathy in 215 unselected Ethiopian diabetics and 100 healthy controls was carried out at the Tikur Ambassa Teaching Hospital, Addis Ababa. The prevalence in diabetics was 54%, in controls 8%. The prevalence was significantly related to the duration of diabetes: 42%, 60% and 80% for a duration of respectively less than 5 years, 5 to 14 years, and 15 years and longer. There was no relationship of the prevalence to age. Diabetics with retinopathy (15%), nephropathy (12%) and liver cirrhosis (13%) had prevalences of respectively 70%, 76% and 71%; much higher figures than in patients without these complications. A higher prevalence of neuropathy was detected by nerve conduction studies than by clinical methods. The mean conduction velocity diminished in direct relation to the duration of the diabetes. The prevalence of neuropathy in our patients is similar to the prevalence reported from other countries in Africa. Poor nutritional background, inadequate control of the diabetes and the high prevalence of associated diseases such as liver cirrhosis may be partly responsible for the high prevalences of neuropathy in African diabetics.
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PMID:Neuropathy in Ethiopian diabetics: a correlation of clinical and nerve conduction studies. 401 53

In a prospective study of 70 unselected patients with chronic liver disease, clinical signs of a peripheral neuropathy were observed in 13 patients. Abnormal nerve conduction was demonstrated in nine of these and in one further patient who had no abnormal neurological signs. The occurrence of a neuropathy (in patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis, haemochromatosis, active chronic hepatitis as well as in alcoholic cirrhosis) could not be related to liver function, although it was associated with higher IgA and IgM values. Clinical diabetes was present in six of the 14 patients with neuropathy but there was no relation in the non-diabetic patients between neuropathy and minor impairment of carbohydrate tolerance. Those with neuropathy had a significantly higher incidence of oesophageal varices and there was also a relationship to a history of previous encephalopathy. Sural nerve biopsy was carried out on 14 patients, eight of whom had clinical or electrodiagnostic evidence of neuropathy. Single nerve fibres were examined by teasing and in all nerves histological evidence was found of an indolent process which had damaged whole Schwann cells and which resulted in demyelination and remyelination. Diabetic angiopathy was not seen and axonal degeneration, which was never severe, was found in all disease groups equally.
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PMID:Peripheral neuropathy in chronic liver disease: clinical, electrodiagnostic, and nerve biopsy findings. 433 71


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