Acute hepatitis: a prognostic study with observation time up to 37 years. A follow-up of the Iversen/Roholm liver biopsy material.

Re-evaluation of 890 consecutive liver biopsies from 1939-59 gave the diagnosis of acute hepatitis in 147 patients. A follow-up study of these patients was performed 15-37 years after the diagnostic biopsy, based on repeated liver biopsies, biochemical liver tests, autopsy reports and death certificates. Two patients died from acute liver failure, and development of cirrhosis was documented or strongly suspected in 22 patients (15 percent). A comparison between these 24 patients with a malignant course of hepatitis and 86 patients with a well documented uncomplicated disease, revealed a significantly larger number of women, a higher age, and more cases with piece-meal necrosis, confluent necrosis and marked portal inflammation in the intitial liver biopsy in the group with the poor prognosis.