file.newsgroup.med.59585 Maven / Gradle / Ivy
From: [email protected] (Kenneth Gilbert)
Subject: Re: Persistent vs Chronic
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (David Rind) writes:
:In article
: [email protected] (Horace Enea) writes:
:>Can anyone out there tell me the difference between a "persistent" disease
:>and a "chronic" one? For example, persistent hepatitis vs chronic
:>hepatitis.
:
:I don't think there is a general distinction. Rather, there are
:two classes of chronic hepatitis: chronic active hepatitis and chronic
:persistent hepatitis. I can't think of any other disease where the
:term persistent is used with or in preference to chronic.
:
:Much as these two terms "chronic active" and "chronic persistent"
:sound fuzzy, the actual distinction between the two conditions
:is often fairly fuzzy as well.
I beg to differ. Chronic *active* hepatitis implies that the disease
remains active, and generally leads to liver failure. At the very
minimum, the patient has persistently elevated liver enzymes (what some
call "transaminitis"). Chronic *persistant* hepatitis simply means that
the patient has HbSag in his/her blood and can transmit the infection, but
shows no evidence of progressive disease. If I had to choose, I'd much
rather have the persistant type.
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= Kenneth Gilbert __|__ University of Pittsburgh =
= General Internal Medicine | "...dammit, not a programmer!" =
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