[Hepatic reactions in the course of viral meningoencephalitis in patients hospitalized in 1985-1989].

In the years 1985-1989 in a department for parasitic and occupational diseases in Białystok, 112 patients were hospitalized with the diagnosis of lymphocytic meningitis. The most common aetiological factor were viruses (30.6%), arboviruses (25.9%), and then herpes viruses (6.25%), and mumps virus (5.3%). In 36 patients (32%) no aetiological factor of the inflammatory process was established. In 22 patients (19.6%) a simultaneous hepatocellular damage was found in the form of jaundice (15 patients, that is 13.4%), and hepatomegaly in seven patients. The observed hepatic involvement was found in the group of patients with severe clinical course of meningitis. Most frequently hepatic reaction was observed in the group of lymphocytic meningitis caused by arboviruses. Among the biochemical indices of hepatocellular damage a significant increase in relation to normal value was found of serum bilirubin level (mean = 1.75 mg%; normally mean = 1.1 mg%), alanine aminotransferase activity was 2.5 times higher than the mean normal value (mean = 77.6 IU; normal value mean = 30 IU). The observed hepatic changes were transient and regressed together with the regression of acute inflammatory state in the central nervous system.