Infezioni in Medicina
Volume 22, Issue 3, 2014, Pages 200-205
Distribution of liver disease in a cohort of immigrants in Sicily: Analysis of day-hospital admissions in a migration medicine unit [Distribuzione delle malattie di fegato in una coorte di immigranti in Sicilia: Analisi dei ricoveri in day hospital in un servizio di medicina delle migrazioni] (Article)
Affronti M. ,
Affronti A. ,
Soresi M. ,
Giannitrapani L. ,
Campagna E. ,
Tramuto F. ,
Brunori G. ,
Montalto G.*
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a
Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine and Specialities (DiBiMIS), Migration Medicine Unit, Italy
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b
Biomedical Department of Internal Medicine and Specialities (DiBiMIS), Migration Medicine Unit, Italy
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c
Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Italy
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d
Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Italy
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e
Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Italy
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f
Hygiene Section, University of Palermo, Italy
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g
Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Italy
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h
Division of Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Italy
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the frequency of liver disease and its aetiology in a cohort of immigrants. We retrospectively examined the hospital discharge charts of all the immigrant patients presenting at our day hospital from July 2009 to June 2013, and after evaluating the anamnestic, clinical and laboratory data on these charts we identified subjects with liver disease and its various aetiologies. The total sample population consisted of 1218 patients, of whom 112 (9.2%) had a diagnosis of liver disease. More than two-thirds of the latter (67.8%) came from Africa, while 15.2% were from Asia and 17.0% from Eastern Europe. In most patients the disease was related to HBV (44.6%), followed by alcohol (25%) and then HCV or cryptogenic disease (both 15.2%). Forty-six patients had undergone liver biopsy, which showed eight cases of varying degrees of liver steatosis, 29 cases with a variable severity of chronic liver disease, eight cases with a definite picture of liver cirrhosis and one case of alcoholic hepatitis. These data show that a significant proportion of our immigrant population has liver disease and that the most frequent cause is hepatitis B infection. © 2014, EDIMES Edizioni Medico Scientifiche. All rights reserved.
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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84907818754&partnerID=40&md5=42b437eb4f6eb35daa707e9958e10ac0
ISSN: 11249390
Cited by: 5
Original Language: English