Interaction between hepatitis b virus and alcohol consumption in liver cirrhosis. An epidemiologic study.

The relationship between alcohol consumption and the presence of seric hepatitis B virus markers has been studied in 125 male patients with liver cirrhosis and 126 control subjects. Mean daily alcohol consumption was found to be higher in patients than in controls. Hepatitis B virus seric markers were also more frequently observed in patients than in controls (53.6% vs. 36.5%, 2p less than 0.05). This was due to the greater frequency of hepatitis B core antibody alone or with hepatitis B surface antigen in the patients (2p less than 0.05). The possible interaction between alcohol and B virus was studied by log-linear hierarchic models for contingency tables. Data were displayed in a three-way classification frequency table (diagnosis, daily alcohol consumption, and hepatitis B virus seric markers). A model assuming that alcohol and seric markers of unresolved infection by hepatitis B virus are independently linked to cirrhosis gives the better goodness of fit between observed and estimated frequencies. The result however, suggests, that hepatitis B virus infection does not increase the influence of alcohol consumption on the production of cirrhosis.