THE ROLE OF VIRAL HEPATITIS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIVER CIRRHOSIS
The paper presents the results of etiological verification of chronic viral hepatitis, in the cirrhotic stage of the disease, in order to clarify the diagnosis and the adoption of appropriate therapeutic and preventive measures. This study was conducted on the basis of the Republican Scientific and Practical Center For The Control Of Viral Infections. 260 patients with liver cirrhosis were under our observation. The main cause of liver cirrhosis was infection with hepatitis viruses. Meanwhile, the following forms of chronic hepatitis were diagnosed: Delta (CHD) in 48 % of patients, B - in 18 % of cases, C - in 24 % of patients. The remaining 10 % of hepatitis cases were non-viral: alcoholic - 2.6 % of the total number of cases, autoimmune hepatitis - 1.6 %, toxic hepatitis was observed in 0.8 % of cases. In 5 % of cases, the etiology of liver cirrhosis could not be detected. Analysis of virological data showed that patients with chronic viral hepatitis D complicated by liver cirrhosis had an increased replication of HDV infection (91/73 %) in 125 cases. In such patients, the level of albumin in the blood decreased, and the content of gamma globulins increased, indicating dysproteinemia which can be considered as an important biochemical syndrome, manifested mainly in the cirrhotic stage of the disease. A significant role in the development of progressive liver cirrhosis was played by the prevalence of the replication phase of chronic viral hepatitis B and C (35/74 % and 54/87 %). HCV genotype 1b (67 %) accounted for the largest number of samples presented in the studies.