One of the most delicate organs of our body is the Liver. Even a minor infection in this organ can create severe repercussions in the nearby future. Hepatitis and Cirrhosis both the diseases are linked with the liver. Both of these are medically different. Though their symptoms and causes are nearly the same, there are a few things that distinguish them from one another. There are a few similarities and a lot of dissimilarities between these two serious diseases will be unfolded in this article.
Hepatitis vs. Cirrhosis
Before going further into the depth of the details, it is important to understand both the diseases individually. While Hepatitis is curable with the help of drugs, Cirrhosis means permanent damage to the liver which may also arise with chronic hepatitis.
Hepatitis: Hepatitis disease is caused by the Hepatitis B virus along with a few other hosts. This makes the liver inflated and it can become severe with time. The various kinds of hepatitis are alcoholic hepatitis, infectious hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, drug-induced hepatitis.
Cirrhosis: Cirrhosis is the medical condition of chronic scarring of the liver. This is often caused by chronic infections like chronic hepatitis. After this, the liver starts to weaken and therefore, the scarring condition aggravates. It is said that medicinally, cirrhosis can’t be cured. Frequent drinkers who cannot control their alcohol consumption are at higher risk of cirrhosis.
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Hepatitis and Cirrhosis: Similarities
Hepatitis and cirrhosis both the medical conditions are caused due to abnormal or irregular liver functions.
Both of these diseases may trigger cancer cells in the liver of the patient apart from the chances of liver failure and liver transplant.
Also read: All About Hepatitis E: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
Hepatitis and Cirrhosis: Dissimilarities
Despite the root cause of both diseases is the same, they are very different from each other. Here are the major dissimilarities between Hepatitis and Cirrhosis.
Symptoms
Symptoms of Cirrhosis are more serious as compared to Hepatitis. Also, the symptoms indications of hepatitis might be of cirrhosis but it isn’t the other way round.
Reversibility
While hepatitis is curable and reversible until and unless it has become severe, cirrhosis is irreversible. However, it is possible to control the severity of cirrhosis if diagnosed on time.
Also read: World Hepatitis Day 2019: Understanding Hepatitis A and B
Treatments
In the case of hepatitis, the goal of the treatment is to reduce the primary causes of the disease. Treating the infection, removing the hepatitis virus are the first-stage treatments for hepatitis. On the other hand, it is impossible to treat cirrhosis. Therefore, doctors rather try to control the symptoms of cirrhosis so that it doesn’t further damage the liver of the patient.
Blood tests
With acute hepatitis, AST and ALT liver enzymes get elevated. Whereas, with cirrhosis, the initial liver function blood tests come out slightly abnormal.
Bottom Line
Hepatitis and cirrhosis are quite similar in several ways but processes but only in continuation. Thankfully, a lot of many of the causes of liver inflammation which lead to cirrhosis are reversible in the early stages with good medical care.
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