Cirrhosis Of The Liver Essay, Research Paper

The Three categories of disease are very different from one another. Communicable, Chronic and Degenerative and Hereditary and Genetic Disorders all have their own types of treatments and or cures and are all spread differently.

Communicable diseases are diseases caused by pathogens that can be spread from one person or animal to another these diseases. These diseases are also called infectious diseases. The easiest way to prevent the spread of these diseases is to keep a clean environment and wash your hands. There are cures for many communicable diseases too.

Hereditary and Genetic Disorders are not like the other types of diseases because u are predetermined at conception to have or not have them. Through your family history and genetics test of amniotic fluid doctors can tell whether an unborn baby has one. These disorders can ranges from slight retardation, to downs syndrome to even a higher risk for heart disease later in life.

Chronic and Degenerative Diseases are diseases that go on for a long time or return from time to time over a long period. Usually they can not be cured but many can be helped by medical treatment. Chronic diseases are also degenerative. Such diseases gradually lead to the breakdown of tissues and organs of the body. Cirrhosis of the Liver is a Chronic Degenerative Disease.

Cirrhosis of the Liver is the irreversible change in the normal liver tissue that results in the degeneration of functioning liver cells and their replacement with fibrous connective tissue. Cirrhosis can have a number of causes; the term is applied whenever the end result is scarring of the liver.

The most common type of cirrhosis is known as La nnec’s cirrhosis. Its primary causes are excessive and chronic alcohol consumption and malnutrition. The relationship between alcohol and cirrhosis is unquestioned, but the mechanism of injury remains unknown. Besides cirrhosis, the affected person may show jaundice, pneumonia, inflammation of the pancreas, or delirium. There is usually an increase in liver fat with this disease during the early stages; later there is little fat and total degeneration of the liver.

In the early stage, the disease can be stopped or reversed by abstention from alcohol consumption and an adequate diet. In this stage, the liver first enlarges; its outer capsule becomes smooth and stretched, and its color is yellow because of fat droplets. Fibrous tissue and extra bile ducts may develop. In the next stage, the liver is still fatty, but the quantity of fibrous tissue has increased so that the liver is granular. The blood vessels thicken and their channels may become obliterated, which reduces blood flow in the organ. Some persons die at this stage from coma, jaundice, infection, high blood pressure, and hemorrhages. In the advanced stage, the liver shrinks and the surface usually has a roughened appearance. The normal structure of the internal tissue is lost; there is no longer fat but only nonfunctioning scar tissue.

There are several other types of cirrhosis. Postnecrotic cirrhosis is the result of viral infection or of toxins such as carbon tetrachloride. Necrosis–i.e. Death of areas of tissue may develop quickly in these cases, a few weeks to months as opposed to years in La nnec’s disease. In pigmentary cirrhosis there is an increased amount of iron deposition in the liver cells because of a blood disorder, too much iron in the ducts, or an accumulation of iron from blood transfusions. The liver becomes granular and nodular, and its color is dark brown. The iron particles may be so dense as to obscure the cell and its function. There is fibrosis and there are sometimes fatty changes. In Wilson’s disease, a hereditary condition, there is excess copper in the liver. The liver usually turns green from bile in the tissue, and enlargement, fibrosis, fat changes, and abscesses occur when the disease is chronic. Syphilitic cirrhosis is indicated by large, soft lesions in the liver, which erode the tissue and eventually leave masses of scar tissue and fissures.

The final complications of cirrhosis are usually the same. There may be high blood pressure in the portal vein that can lead to hemorrhages in the spleen, liver, esophagus, and intestines; or hepatic coma may develop, in which the imbalance in blood chemicals from malfunctioning of the liver affects the brain. Hepatic coma usually starts with drowsiness and confusion and culminates in loss of consciousness. Jaundice may complicate any stage of cirrhosis. Edema–fluid retention in the tissues–and great abdominal swelling also are commonly seen.

Symptoms of cirrhosis are usually absent during the early stages of the disease. Occasionally, cirrhosis is detected during a physical examination when an enlargement of the liver, spleen, or veins in the upper abdominal wall is found. More often, patients develop symptoms related either to the failure of the liver to perform its functions or to complications caused by the circulatory changes that a cirrhotic liver imposes on the venous blood flow from the intestinal tract (portal hypertension). Thus, common symptoms include jaundice, resulting from reduced passage of conjugated bilirubin into the biliary tract; increased bleeding, from sequestration of blood platelets in a congested spleen; or the deficient production of short-lived coagulation proteins by the liver. In males, there may be certain changes in the skin, such as the appearance of small spider-like vascular lesions on the hands, arms, or face, a marked reddening of portions of the palms, or enlargement of the breast or reduction in testicular size. These symptoms are believed to occur because of the liver’s inability to metabolize the female sex hormones normally produced by the body. The gradual accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity (ascites), sometimes accompanied by swelling of the ankles, is attributable to portal hypertension and to reduced hepatic production of albumin, while failure of the liver to metabolize amino acids and other products of protein digestion may lead to the state of confusion called hepatic encephalopathy. Loss of appetite, reduction of muscle mass, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and weakness are other symptoms of hepatic cirrhosis. Diabetes in a patient with cirrhosis is caused by hemochromatosis (excessive deposition of iron in tissues, especially in the liver and pancreas), since iron deposits compromise the production of insulin by the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas. Severe spastic disorders of the muscles in the limbs, head, and face suggests the presence of Wilson’s disease, especially if there is a family history, since the copper deposits characteristic of that disorder are toxic to the liver and to structures in the base of the brain. A history of chronic lung infections or of progressive obstructive lung disease may be present in patients with cystic fibrosis or a deficiency of alpha1-antitrypsin.

A diagnosis of cirrhosis is confirmed by blood tests that show an elevated concentration of hepatocytic enzymes, reduced levels of coagulation proteins, elevated levels of bilirubin, and, most importantly, reduced amounts of serum albumin (a major protein of human blood plasma) and increases in serum globulin (a specific group of proteins found in blood plasma and including immunoglobulins). Although other tests may also be abnormal in patients with acute liver disease, serum albumin levels are usually not reduced in the acute stage of the disease because that protein is rather long-lived, up to one month, and levels do not decrease until the liver disease becomes chronic. Elevated levels of serum iron or copper support a diagnosis of hemochromatosis or Wilson’s disease, respectively, while a positive test for serum antibodies to cellular mitochondria is associated almost solely with primary biliary cirrhosis. The presence of HBV surface antigen or of delta agent suggests posthepatic cirrhosis. A percutaneous needle biopsy of the liver is the most valuable diagnostic test, since this procedure makes available an actual specimen of liver tissue for microscopic examination. Treatment of cirrhosis of the liver never results in a completely normal organ, since the process of scarring and nodular regeneration is permanent. The process itself, however, can be prevented or its progress halted by managing the precipitating factors of the disease.

Prevention of this disease is simple; avoid mass alcohol consumption, get all the proper vaccinations hepatitis and make sure you are eating right and supplying your body with all the nutrients it needs to function. Beyond that there is not much one can do. If you are currently infected with chronic liver cirrhosis, there is still hope for you. On February 2nd, this year, Scientist in New York reported that they wiped out liver cirrhosis in rats by injecting their muscles with a human gene, raising early hopes for a new treatment for people.

Where as before the only cure for cirrhosis was a successful liver transplant, now through the injection of a protein called hepatocyte growth factor HGF, which promotes liver regeneration and suppresses cell death while blocking a second protein which allows scaring, We might be able to stop and even reverse the effects of cirrhosis after it is diagnosed. About 25,000 Americans die from cirrhosis every year according to the national Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; maybe this protein can greatly lower that statistic.

Cirrhosis of the Liver is a serious disease and with many treatments and preventative techniques. Once acquired, being that it is a chronic and degenerative disease, it in most cases cannot be cured. New studies are showing the possibility for a cure sometime in the near future but nothing has reached the market yet. To date, the only way out is a successful liver transplant. Chronic and degenerative diseases can be scary to have being that in most cases you are either stuck with it for life or have it remain dormant in your system. But with new technologies always being discovered the time will come where these diseases can be cured or vaccinated for, for life.

Communicable diseases can be as simple as this year s flu strain or as complex as the black plague in Europe. Either way cleanliness or sanitary living conditions are a must. This is necessary to prevent the spread of them and maybe through science, wipe them off the face of the earth for good.

Genetic and hereditary disorders are diseases passed through the genes from parent to child. Geneticists are currently making many breakthroughs in the gene splicing field and are being accused of trying to create a master race. Through this technology we can avoid unfavorable traits and deformities on a cellular level. This could be the key to preventing genetic diseases for ever.

It is hard to keep up with the ever changing medical advancements but whatever scientists are doing, wherever they are going with their billions of dollars of research money, lets just hope their on the right tract.