Hepatitis may have evident symptoms or not, depending on the stadium of the disease and how much of the liver is affected. First symptoms are nausea, diarrhea, fever, loss of appetite, unexplained tiredness. In an advanced stadium when the liver can’t perform its functions jaundice occurs one of the most evident and characteristic sign of hepatitis. Bilirubin is usually processed by the liver, and is the last product of the disposal of old blood cells, this pigment is yellow and is found in the bile and then is expelled in the digestive tract. Bilirubin is the pigment that gives the brown color to the faeces. In hepatitis when the functions of the liver are perturbated bilirubin isn’t processed accordingly and is not eliminated, but enters in the blood.
Some is eliminated through kidneys and the rest is deposed in the skin and eyes that is why the persons with hepatitis have a pale face, with yellow coloured lines in the palms of the hands, their urine is also brown or tea coloured. If the liver is swollen, tenderness and pain under the low right rib edge appears. Because of mild manifestations the patient can mistake the disease for a flu, hepatitis symptoms may occur suddenly or gradually. The most frequent symptoms are: fever and fatigue, gastro intestinal symptoms may be: nausea and vomiting and even pain in the right quadrant of the abdomen. Children tend not to develop jaundice. Other symptoms are: irritability, itching, light colored stools, drowsiness, diarrhea and joint aches. If clinical test are done the liver and spleen may be observed as enlarged and anemia appears in most people.
Hepatitis B and C progress to chronic hepatitis with no special symptoms, chronic hepatitis C can be present 10 –30 years with no obvious symptoms, except fatigue and itching of the skin. As in other chronic diseases in chronic hepatitis, vitality, and mood affecting in a negative mood their quality of life. Cirrhosis or liver failure may develop before any symptoms appear.
In other cases pain occurs in small joints in the body for example in the hand and you may think you have carpal tunnel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia. In chronic autoimmune hepatitis the symptoms are fever, weight loss, fatigue and jaundice. The accumulation of fluid in the legs and and abdomen causes swelling of the belly and legs.
In fulminant hepatitis symptoms are: ascites which is the swollen of the belly, hand flapping tremor that appears in two months time from the onset of acute hepatitis. Fulminant hepatitis is very severe, because its manifestations are sudden and imply a high risk: stupor, mintal confusion , coma caused by the encephalopathy with stomach and intestinal bleeding.
If you want to find out more resources about hepatitis or even about hepatitis c information you should visit this website http://www.hepatitis-guide.com
Milton
