Liver weight of adult Japanese, especially recent weight values

Cases of 445 adult Japanese autopsies of the Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Exa miner's Office were used in this study. They were either negative for all h epatitis virus-related markers examined or had little or no histopathologic al hepatic changes. The maximum liver weight was observed in the fifth deca de in both sexes, and after the fifth decade the liver weight decreased mar kedly with increasing age. The sexual difference in the liver weight was mo st predominant in the third to fifth decades, but the sexual difference was not marked in the older age groups. The highest liver weight to body weigh t ratio was observed in the fifth decade of both sexes, and a total decadal pattern of the ratio was similar to a parabola. An interesting finding was that the male liver weights in the third to fifth decades considerably inc reased in recent years, but the female liver weights in the third decade we re almost the same despite the difference in investigation period. We sugge st the data of this study may be a standard for Japanese people. (C) 2000 E lsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.