Alcoholic Fatty Liver

Abstract

SINCE the last review of alcoholic fatty liver in this journal,¹ the incidence of this disorder has been increasing,^{2 , 3} and new information has been gathered concerning its pathogenesis.Etiologic Role of AlcoholThe hitherto widely accepted concept of the exclusive pathogenic role of malnutrition was based largely on experimental work in rats carried out by Best and Hartroft and their co-workers, who concluded that "there is no more evidence of a specific-toxic effect of pure ethyl alcohol upon liver cells than there is for one due to sugar."⁴ In these experiments ethanol was administered in drinking water, and accounted for . . .