Geschichte der Erforschung von Leberkrankheiten (Teil 1).

The antique observation of patients with liver diseases was followed by epidemiologic studies in Middle Ages. Further research depended on the development of methods of laboratory diagnostics, microbiology, biochemistry and moleculargenetics. In the second half of the 20th century, the infectious hepatitides were differentiated, causally solved, and to a wide extent therapeutically controlled. The metabolic hepatitides remain a global task for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]