The Bones in Chronic Liver Disease

Abstract

Patients with chronic liver disease have been studied for evidence of osteomalacia ro osteoporosis. No evidence of osteomalacia was found in eleven patients with chronic hepatocellular jaundice of four months to four years duration, nor in ten other patients with chronic liver disease who were not jaundiced. In these subjects, and in an additional seventeen non-jaundiced patients with cirrhosis of the liver, there was evidence of osteoporosis as judged by measurements of the thickness of the metacarpal cortex.