THE ASSOCIATION OF LAENNEC'S CIRRHOSIS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

Abstract

A total of 15,450 autopsy protocols at the Los Angeles County Hospital were reviewed, of which 576 were diabetic. Clinical estimation of liver size was shown to be unreliable; the review was done with special reference to the clinical diagnosis of fatty liver or cirrhosis. The incidence of cirrhosis in diabetics as found at autopsy was 4.7 times that found clinically, whereas in a control group of non-diabetics the autopsy incidence was only 1.5 times that found clinically. There was a much higher incidence of fatty livers in uncontrolled diabetics as compared with controlled diabetics and with non-diabetics. The known incidence of chronic alcoholism was much lower in diabetic than in non-diabetic patients with cirrhosis. However, the incidence of cirrhosis in diabetics (5.7%) and non-diabetics (5.9%) was not significantly different.