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IPLab:Lab 2:Fatty Change and Cirrhosis

Contents

Clinical SummaryEdit

This 54-year-old man with a long history of alcohol abuse disorder. Three weeks prior to his demise, the patient began an alcoholic binge. Three days prior to admission the patient developed fever and malaise and when he was brought to the hospital he was semi-comatose and had a fever of 104.5°F. Shortly after arriving at the hospital, the patient died from massive pneumonia.

At autopsy, a necrotizing lobar pneumonia was present which contained organisms consistent with Klebsiella pneumoniae. The liver was enlarged--weighing 2700 grams--and had a yellow-orange color. The liver was firm to palpation and the cut surface had a slightly granular appearance suggestive of early cirrhosis. The pancreas showed multiple areas of fibrosis.

ImagesEdit

Virtual MicroscopyEdit

Liver: Fatty Change and CirrhosisEdit

Normal LiverEdit

Study QuestionsEdit


Additional ResourcesEdit

Related IPLab CasesEdit

A normal PaCO2 is 35 to 45 mmHg.

In alcoholics, aspiration pneumonia is common--bacteria enter the lung via aspiration of gastric contents.

Necrotizing lobar pneumonia is a severe acute pneumonia caused by virulent organisms and aspirated of gastric contents.

A normal liver weighs 1650 grams (range: 1500 to 1800 grams).

Cirrhosis is a liver disease characterized by necrosis, fibrosis, loss of normal liver architecture, and hyperplastic nodules.

Nodular hyperplasia of the prostate--characterized by large discrete prostatic nodules--is a common disorder in men over 50 years of age. The nodules cause the prostate to be enlarged and to have an increased weight. The human prostate is surrounded by a restrictive capsule. These nodules cause increased pressure within the capsule which leads to constriction of the urethra as it passes through the prostate. Urethral constriction leads to retention of urine.