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Cirrhosis represents the end stage of chronic liver disease, characterized by high mortality and morbidity. The prevalence of liver disease is difficult to assess, given its clinical latency up to the late stage.We aimed to assess the prevalence of unrecognized chronic liver disease and cirrhosis using surrogate indicators from medical records of family physicians.Medical records of 139,104 subjects, collected from 99 family physicians of the Veneto region, were used. Persistently high transaminases were used as indicators of occult chronic liver disease; thrombocytopenia, unrelated to haematological malignancies, was used as indicator of occult cirrhosis. Diagnosis of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis was assessed using ICD9-CM-1997 codes.Alteration of transaminases was found in 32.7% of the subjects, and among them only one-third had an already diagnosed liver disease. Patients with diagnosis of cirrhosis were 0.3%, while thrombocytopenia, indicator of occult cirrhosis, was detected in 1.3% of the remaining population. Patients with overt and occult cirrhosis showed a higher metabolic profile, with significantly higher prevalence of arterial hypertension, obesity and diabetes than the general population.A large proportion of patients with chronic liver disease is still undiagnosed. Surrogate biochemical indicators might be useful for disease recognition.

Background and Aim: Liver cirrhosis is characterized by high morbidity and mortality rates. This study was addressed to evaluate the epidemiological and economic impact of cirrhosis on hospitalizations in a large population in Italy. Methods: Epidemiological analysis was performed using hospital discharge sheets of 57,720 hospitalizations due to liver disease from 2006 to 2008, selected from the Veneto regional archive. In a sample of 100 randomly selected hospitalizations, a detailed cost analysis was performed and a comparison was made with sets of patients admitted for heart failure (HF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Results: Among patients with cirrhosis, ascites emerged as the most frequent cause of admission, followed by hepatic encephalopathy, hepatocellular carcinoma, and upper gastrointestinal bleeding. Encephalopathy and ascites were the complications with the highest rates of readmission. The detailed cost analysis of hospitalizations revealed that economic expenses in the set of patients admitted for cirrhosis were about 30% higher than those for patients admitted for HF or COPD, mainly due to the longer duration of hospitalization. Conclusions: Cirrhosis has a relevant epidemiological and economic impact on hospitalizations and preventive strategies for its clinical management are warranted.