1. Hepatic disease can have many clinical presentations:
- Systemic signs and symptoms – fever, jaundice, malnutrition with loss of weight, bleeding tendency, generalised oedema, malaise
- Localised signs and symptoms – pain, hepatomegaly
2. Here are 4 main clinical manifestations that are common symptom/signs complexes in liver disease:
- Hepatitis
- Liver failure
- Cirrhosis
- Jaundice
They have many causes, and can occur simultaneously.
3. Blood investigations: In addition to the history and clinical examination, there are many blood investigations that can help in diagnosing liver disease. These include liver functions tests and other tests for hepatic dysfunction. This table is taken from your lecture notes, which has other slides with more details.
This video helps explain the 4 main symptom complexes in relation to the main liver functions.