Symptoms of jaundice hepatitis

Icteric hepatitis is a liver disease caused mainly by the hepatitis virus destroying liver cells and liver tissues. During the illness, patients generally feel cold and have fever. A small number of patients even have a high fever for many days. In addition, they will feel weak, lose appetite, feel nauseous and vomit, and have yellow urine. If you suffer from icteric hepatitis, you must seek medical attention and treatment in time to avoid affecting your condition.

During the treatment, patients with jaundice hepatitis should not only take medicine on time as prescribed by the doctor, but also pay more attention to their diet. They should eat more light foods that are easier to digest and absorb, and avoid spicy and irritating foods. It is best to eat more nutritious liquid and semi-liquid foods, and the temperature should be appropriate. This will help patients recover as soon as possible. Let us introduce the symptoms of jaundice hepatitis.

Symptoms of jaundice hepatitis

1. Urine is yellow like tea: Patients with icteric hepatitis all have symptoms of yellow urine. Initially the urine is light yellow in color, which gradually darkens day by day, becoming as thick as tea or soybean oil; then the skin and sclera turn yellow. The reason why urine color becomes darker is that the hepatitis virus causes liver cell damage, affecting the metabolism of bilirubin and causing more bilirubin to enter the blood.

2. Pain in the liver area: It is called icteric hepatitis, which will definitely cause liver damage. The location of the pain is in the right upper abdomen. The reason for the symptom of icteric hepatitis such as pain in the liver area is that the hepatitis virus causes the liver to swell, increasing the tension of the liver capsule and causing inflammation to spread to the liver ligaments and the surrounding tissues.

3. Fever: When patients with jaundice hepatitis have fever symptoms, many people will misdiagnose it as a cold and fever, which delays the timely treatment of the disease. The cause of fever is hepatocellular necrosis, liver dysfunction, decreased detoxification and excretion function, or viremia.

Clinical manifestations

Pre-icteric

During this stage, due to individual differences and complex and diverse patient manifestations, it is easy to be misdiagnosed, and special attention should be paid. For example, some patients present with upper respiratory tract inflammation, similar to a cold. Some patients may experience joint pain and be mistaken for rheumatism. A small number of people also have severe abdominal pain and mistakenly think it is acute abdomen. A small number of people may also develop measles. At the end of this period, physical examination may reveal percussion pain and tenderness in the liver area. The liver can be touched below the rib margin in more than half of the patients. Serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is significantly elevated and urine bilirubin is positive. Hepatitis B surface antigen is positive and hepatitis B core antibody immunoglobulin M (anti-HBcIgM) is positive. During this period, the patient's blood, feces, urine, and vomit contain a large amount of hepatitis virus, making it highly contagious.

Jaundice stage

Jaundice appears after the fever subsides. The sclera is often the first to turn yellow, followed by yellowing of the entire body, reaching its peak within a few days to 2 to 3 weeks. Most cases have mild to moderate jaundice. At this time, gastrointestinal symptoms worsen, the liver is enlarged, with tenderness and percussion pain; in a few cases, the spleen is enlarged and can be touched under the marginal margin. Some patients also experience skin itching, bradycardia, abdominal pain and rash. After resting for a few days, the patient's nausea was relieved, vomiting disappeared, and appetite gradually improved. The white blood cell count is generally normal or slightly low, the lymphocyte count is high, and a small number of abnormal lymphocytes may be present. Urine bilirubin and urobilinogen are positive (urobilinogen may be temporarily negative in patients with very deep jaundice and grayish white stool). The serum ALT activity increases significantly, often above 400u, and this period lasts for 2 to 6 weeks or longer.

Recovery period

During this period, jaundice, liver enlargement and other symptoms gradually subside, appetite returns to normal, but mild pain in the liver area still exists. This period lasts an average of one month. In a few cases, jaundice is significant and lasts for several months. Fatigue, liver pain and gastrointestinal symptoms are not very obvious. Liver function shows obstructive jaundice, and ALT is only slightly or moderately elevated. This is called cholestatic hepatitis. Complications: A small number of cases may be complicated by one or more of the following: myocarditis, pericarditis, miliary viral pneumonia, pancreatic necrosis, diabetes, meningoencephalitis, acute polyradiculitis, acute hemolytic anemia, pancytopenia, aplastic anemia, thrombophlebitis, nephritis, orchitis, papular dermatitis, and multiple arthritis.

Patients with icteric hepatitis must receive timely treatment. If the treatment is delayed, it may damage the liver or cause other complications in the body. Severe cases may even be life-threatening, so everyone must pay attention to it. In addition, icteric hepatitis is caused by a virus, so it is contagious. Everyone should keep a distance to avoid infection.