Hepatitis - what to do, before it's too late?

Hepatitis - is always a serious problem, since even in mild and asymptomatic disease can result in cirrhosis of the liver and a progressive decline in function of that organ. Help in this case, only a liver transplant. Therefore, it is important to promptly detect and treat hepatitis - in the early stages they are quite treatable.

What is hepatitis

Hepatitis B - is the generic name of acute and chronic inflammatory diffuse liver diseases of various origin. There are various kinds of hepatitis, they are separated for reasons of occurrence, severity, inflammatory activity, changes in liver and so on.

Classification of hepatitis, for reasons of

Causes of hepatitis can be very different, including those they may be infectious and noninfectious character. The most common cause of infectious hepatitis in people often are hepatotropic (selectively affecting liver tissue) viruses. Today we know 9 kinds of hepatotropic viruses: A, B, C, D, E, G, F, TTV, SEN.

How is hepatitis?

Hepatitis A and E cause infectious disease, which in most cases end in complete recovery from virus excretion from the body. Whether these pathogens alimentary (through water and food) and the fecal-oral route via hands contaminated by the faeces of the patient, so they are called "nutritional hepatitis." It is also possible sexual transmission (particularly through homosexual contact, at which the injury to the rectal mucosa) and blood transfusion patient health. Raw shellfish caught in polluted waters can also cause hepatitis A and E.

Other hepatotropic viruses (B, C, D, G, F, TTV, SEN) causing serum hepatitis. This so-called parenteral hepatitis, as their activators is not transmitted through the gastrointestinal tract and via the blood or sexually. Hepatitis B virus is composed of so-called Australian antigen (HBsAg), diseases caused by it is sometimes called "Australian hepatitis." There are the following ways of hepatitis: when visiting a beauty salon, dentist's office, blood transfusion, tattooing, sharing syringes by different people, and so on.

Also hepatotropic viruses there are viruses that can affect various organs and systems of the human body, including the liver. These pathogens are cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex viruses (hepatitis liver herpetic), Epstein - Barr virus, flavovirusy (arthropod-borne, causing yellow fever, etc.), yellow fever virus, rubella, mumps, HIV.

Bacterial pathogens can cause hepatitis and leptospirosis syphilis.

Types of hepatitis infectious origin

Types of hepatitis infectious origin - is toxic, drug, alcohol, autoimmune and reactive hepatitis Reactive hepatitis - a liver reaction to severe extrahepatic disease . Hepatitis unspecified etiology (unverified hepatitis) called cryptogenic.

The causes of toxic hepatitis can be different. Toxic substances that affect the liver may be internal (endogenous) or external (exogenous) origin. Thus, the toxins formed as burns, severe infections, endogenous call may have a toxic effect on the liver. This reactive or secondary hepatitis, sometimes referred to as "non-specific hepatitis."

The action of exogenous toxins, coming from outside the body primarily through the gastrointestinal tract, chronic hepatitis develops Toxic hepatitis - the impact of harmful substances on the liver . The most common toxic hepatitis caused by drugs with hepatotoxic, alcohol (chronic alcoholic hepatitis), industrial and plant poisons. All of these toxic substances have a direct detrimental effect on the liver cells (hepatocytes).

Drug-induced hepatitis can occur when taking drugs such as antibiotics tetracycline, acetaminophen, antituberculosis drugs, sulfonamides, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as diclofenac, indomethacin, etc.), antifungal agents (e.g., ketoconazole), hormonal contraceptives, in the which includes the estrogens, etc. Hepatotoxic amplifies the action of drugs in the elderly and if the patient already has some liver disease.

The impact of alcohol and poisons

Significant toxic effects on the liver cells has alcohol. Evolving with the alcoholic hepatitis is called. Alcoholic hepatitis is due to a direct toxic effect on the liver cells alcohol metabolite - acetaldehyde, which is formed in the liver during alcohol processing. Sometimes alcoholic hepatitis Alcoholic hepatitis - the fate of all patients with chronic alcoholism   It leads to fatty liver (steatohepatitis).

The cause of toxic hepatitis are plant toxins (poisons of mushrooms, for example, pale grebe, weeds - ragwort and bitterling). Many vegetable poisons have a direct toxic effect on the liver cells, which leads to its severe lesions including necrosis and extensive areas of human death.

For industrial poisons with hepatotoxic include phosphorus, arsenic, acetaldehyde (it is used for the production of acetic acid), some components of the oil, phenols, pesticides and insecticides (substances that are used in agriculture to control weeds and insects).

When the immune system is weakened

Autoimmune hepatitis is a consequence of the failure of the immune system that destroys liver tissue. As a result, certain types of autoimmune hepatitis Autoimmune hepatitis - the immune system rejects its own liver cells   may develop biliary cirrhosis (biliary hepatitis, but this is a misnomer) - a disease characterized by irreversible progressive destruction of intrahepatic bile ducts resulting in the emergence of the inflammatory process.

There are also chronic cholestatic hepatitis, or mechanical - a disease that occurs in violation of the outflow of bile at the small bile ducts.

Congenital (fetal) is a consequence of a hepatitis infection in utero (intrauterine hepatitis) and develops in the fetus from the beginning of the fourth month of fetal development. Hepatitis causes birth different causes: viruses (hepatitis B virus, cytomegalovirus, herpes simplex virus, rubella virus), bacterial infection (listerellez), protozoa infestation (toxoplasmosis), incompatibility of blood between mother and fetus. The most fully studied in children congenital hepatitis virus. Fetal hepatitis often occurs subacute and is the cause of premature births.

Classification of hepatitis on the specifics of the disease:

• chronic persistent hepatitis (CPH) or sluggish hepatitis - sound flowing, usually without complications, sometimes referred to as inactive, but it is not quite true;
• chronic active hepatitis (CAH) - aggressively proceeding with large areas of necrosis and progressive destruction of liver cells, often turns into cirrhosis of the liver with a partial loss of its function.

Adrift hepatitis are also divided into acute and chronic. Chronic hepatitis B is considered, which lasts more than six months.