THE EFFECT OF LIGHT DRINKING ON HCV LIVER-DISEASE - THE JURY IS STILLOUT

We carried out a study to determine if light drinking (1 unit alcohol/ d) adversely affected liver histology in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-assoc iated liver disease. Twenty-eight women who developed chronic hepatiti s C (all genotype 15) as a result of receiving contaminated anti-D imm unoglobulin (Ig) had their alcohol intake assessed. Group I (n = 8) to ok no alcohol, Group II (n = 8) consumed less than one unit monthly an d Group III (n = 12) took between two and 18 units (mean = 6.7 units) per week. All 28 subjects had a liver biopsy performed and their histo logy scored according to the global Knodell score (KI) and the interna tional score for both inflammatory grading (II) and fibrotic staging ( FI). The three scores were compared between the three groups and diffe rences tested for significance. The median score for the three groups were Group I: KI = 2, II = 2 and FI = 0; Group II: KI = 4, II = 3.5 an d Fl = 0.5; Group III: KI = 5.5, II = 4 and FI = 1.5. Initial analysis showed that there was no difference between those who abstained from alcohol and those with a less than monthly consumption; these groups w ere united and compared with the light drinkers. On Mann-Whitney U tes t analysis, the P values for the differences between the light drinker s and the combined groups were 0.066 (KI), 0.159 (II) and 0.080 (FI) T hese results show a trend towards greater histological abnormality in people drinking one unit of alcohol per day, but larger groups will ne ed to be assessed to determine if this is a true or chance finding.