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The relationships between the number of Ito cells; serum N-terminal type III procollagen and laminin; clinical and biochemical parameters of liver function derangement; histomorphometrically assessed total amount of liver fibrosis; and daily ethanol intake were studied in 43 patients affected by chronic alcoholic liver disease (10 cirrhotics). Significant correlations were found between serum laminin and N-terminal type III procollagen and histological, clinical and biochemical data of liver function derangement, but no correlation was found between the aforementioned parameters and the percentage of Ito cells, which in turn seemed to be related to ethanol ingestion.

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of drug addicts without acute organic pathology, in order to determine the prevalence of malnutrition and to discern if early HIV infection is associated with a poor nutritional status in this group of patients. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Detoxication unit of a university hospital. Patients: 140 drug addicts without acute organic pathology. 31 patients were HIV+. No one fulfilled the definition of AIDS. Results: We found that drug addicts were undernourished: 92.4% weighed under the mean populational weight and 55.7% had a weight loss above 5%. The distribution of mid upper arm circumference (MUAC), triceps skinfold (TSF) and mid arm muscle area (MAMA) was lower than a reference normal population. Food intakes were poor; 66.4% of our patients complained of anorexia on admission. The mean caloric intake was 978 ± 89 kcal/day in females and 1265 ± 64 kcal/day in males. The mean protein intakes were 39.3 ± 3.3 g/day in females (0.76 ± 0.07 g/kg/day) and 49.7 ± 2.7 g/day in males (0.77 ± 0.04 g/kg/day). When we compared nutritional parameters between HIV+ and HIV- patients we found no differences. Conclusions: Nutritional impairment in drugs abusers with early stages of HIV infection should be attributed to drug abuse rather than to HIV infection.

Clinical observation of stasis pigmentation of the lower limbs of alcoholics with a prevalence of 52.5% vs. 17.9% in non-alcoholics.

Bone biopsies of 52 histologically confirmed alcoholic cirrhotic patients and 15 age- and sex-matched controls have been histomorphometrically analyzed determining trabecular bone volume (TBV), mineralized bone volume (MBV), and osteoid volume (OV). We also determined serum PTH, 25-OH-D3, calcitonin, FSH, LH, estradiol, testosterone, T3 and T4, urine cortisol, routine liver function tests, serum and urinary calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. We found a high prevalence of osteoporosis: TBV was significantly lower in cirrhotic patients (T = 7.23, P less than 0.001), 41 of them being in the range of osteoporosis; none of them had osteomalacia. Levels of all the above-mentioned hormones and electrolytes were almost normal, and no correlation was found between them and liver function tests, as occurred with the bone parameters.