There are many causes. The liver could be damaged or malfunctioning due to congenital or inherited abnormalities. There could be infections of viruses, bacteria or other micro organisms. Alcohol consumption causes liver damage for sure.
Infections
There are many ways for getting the liver infected. Infections are very important cause for the hepatitis (the inflammation of the liver). Primary viral infections are common and viruses are the majority causative factors for the same. There are three major viruses that cause the hepatic damage namely HEPATITIS VIRUS A, B and C. They infect nearly five hundred thousand people a year only in USA.
In addition to this, fungi, bacteria and protozoa can also affect the liver function. Liver is also inevitably involved to blood borne infections to some extent.
Inflammatory disorders
The hepatitis involves the damage and inflammation of the liver cells called as hepatocytes. This may be raised due to toxins, immunologic attack or infectious agents. In some cases the antitrypsin deficiency can also imitate hepatitis.
Toxins
Drugs, alcohols, certain chemicals and poisons can cause the hepatic damage. They can effect the liver by directly i.e. damaging the liver cells or indirectly i.e. by stimulating an autoimmune response or by reducing the defenses. Exact mechanism is not yet clear.
Chemicals and poisons – both industrial and environmental can cuase a wide variety of damage or alteration in lever functions. Liver damage is not necessarily dose-dependent and may vary in range from mild, asymptomatic inflammation to sudden and sever failure or progressive cirrhosis and fibrosis.
The alcohol is primarily synthesized in liver and these metabolites may damage the liver. The study says that the risk of liver toxicity increases if about four drinks or more than 40 ml alcohol is consumed a day.
Numerous drugs can also damage the liver in significant manner. The damage may range from mild, moderate to severe. The result could be liver failure and sometimes even to the fatal attack. If the situation is remained untouched for long term, it may end up in death. Anti-tubercular drugs, NSAID, anti-pyretic drugs are very well known drugs that cause the liver damage.
Immunological mechanisms
The immune system of the human body recognizes the foreign or non-self antigens, for instance, invading bacteria, virus and their proteins. These antigens are recognized by antibodies (these are the proteins those can specifically bind antigens and help removing them from the human body) and then finally eliminated.
Now, in some cases, autoimmunity is developed where the immune system reacts against “self” antigens by mistake. This is occurred in primary biliary cirrhosis and autoimmune hepatitis. These are two diseases in which the immune system targets and attacks some portion of liver and finally destroys. If this is left untreated, the persistent inflammation of the liver can eventually turns into the liver cirrhosis, the dangerous condition of the liver.
The vascular disorders
When there is an obstruction of the portal blood flow that drains the blood from the intestines, spleen and stomach there will be portal hypertension. Portal hypertension is nothing but the elevation in the portal blood pressure that directly affects the liver as the liver filters the portal blood.
Neoplastic disorders and others
Non-cancerous hepatic tumors are generally asymptomatic and most common of them are hemangiomas. The liver is the common site for blood-borne malignant tumor metastases. This may include breast, lung, pancreas, ovarian, stomach and colorectal cancers.
Hepatocellular carcinoma occurs in the most of the patient with severe cirrhosis from alcoholism, viral infections or hemochromatosis. Men are more affected than the women and the prognosis is dismal with the average of survival of about six months after the symptoms are actually come in to pictures.
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