h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Liver Disease - A2132317
Author: leo mckern [space for random exotic word juxtaposition generator] - U534308

a bit more comprehensive than the current entry on the liver!

Not a bad entry - a definite improvement on the existing one.

Just a few points though.

There is no information in being told that something is the same shape as the hole it is filling.

grammar: 'The liver makes and break down' -> 'The liver makes and breaks down'

In the causes of disease, should 'auto-immune' and 'inherited' both by followed by disease, or something. They don't look right on their own.

If the blood is the transport medium to/from the liver, how do insoluble toxins get there, or are there toxins which dissolve in blood but not in water?

grammar: 'The person may appear yellow (jaundice) especially the whites of the eyes' looks wrong.

grammar: 'his mental state' has no 'him' to refer to. Similarly 'He will be prone'

You say that 'The aim of treatment of liver disease is to prevent cirrhosis.', but isn't that an aim secondary to killing the disease?

I have no medical knowledge, so forgive any ignorance in my comments, and ignore any that are incorrect. By the way, are you subscribed to your own personal space - you need to click on the button that notifies you of new conversions to become so. I left a message there just now.

The prose does need serious attention doesn't it? I'll adjust things

hopefully that reads better and clarifies most of your points. in answer re toxins your guess re toxins dissolving in blood (via carrier proteins) and not urine is correct

Looks OK to me now.

Be most interested if you could do something on TB, and calcification of lungs 50 years after the initial illness. I understand TB was quite common just after the war, due to poor housing and food rationing, and is now making a comeback. I have a personal interest in this (one lung less than last year). Don't mind if your angle is present day prevention rather than treatments for fogies like me. Is prevention your main interest - I'm guessing that from your other stuff currently in review.

Even if you know nothing about their subjects, you might like to look at some of my attempts at entries. They don't seem to get many reviewers that speak, and they are all easily linkable from my space.

It is a real pleasure when, as you do, comments are acted upon promptly. That will keep me interested in any of your future submissions. Have you subscribed to Peer Review, to see all the other entries being offered?

I'll happily do an article on treatment - it'll require a little bit of checking my books first although the technical side of drugs probably isn't too important. one interesting aspect of TB is the first randomised trial for any treatment was performed on streptomycin for TB.

I'll have a look at your entries and try and make sensible comments - maths etc I last did years ago at school (and grammar unfortunately!)

I look at peer review regularly but I only look at certain types of entries
I do find the process very useful as my first attempts are usually just getting the ideas down and are fairly cumbersome. Its great to see the piece develop and become much more readable

It seems odd to say that liver disease is caused by viruses such as Hepatitis B or C.

Hepatitis means Liver Disease. All of the Hepatitis varieties cause liver disease. Why don't you mention Hepatitis A? Isn't there a D, an E and another one as well which is "none of the above"?

And there's also a disease which is called "Viral Hepatitis".

It might be worth putting in something on what to do when recovering from Hepatitis, such as avoiding food with any fat in it whatsoever. It's possible to fry and egg in a non-stick pan without using fat. If you grill chicken and turn it regularly, all the fat will drip off. There are recipes for Cold Tea Brack (a type of cake) which do not require any butter or other fat.

hepatitis means liver inflammation. hepatitis can also be caused by Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus etc
Hep A doesn't cause long-lasting problems which is why I didn't mention it. Poeple have written massive textbooks about liver disease but I'm trying to keep it short and sweet

I appreciate you want to keep it brief and relatively simple, but a couple of things...

I agree with what the others have said - hepatitis is a general term used to describe an inflamation of the liver by whatever cause.

""Its shape is determined by the cavity available in the upper right part of the abdomen.""

It may be worth mentioning that it is an organ made up of lobes.

""The liver makes and breaks down various substances, stores nutrients""

It may be better to say that the liver has a vital role in 'metabolising' carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as the storage of glycogen, fat, iron and some vitamins, the production of bile, and acting as a blood reservoir.


""poisons/drugs (paracetamol)""

I would say '(for example paracetamol)'


""The most obvious sign of liver disease is jaundice, where the skin and whites of the eyes (sclera) are yellow.""

This is true, but there are other reasons that a person can appear jaundiced, for instance the bile is unable to flow away from the liver due to an obstruction (gall stones) or haemolytic jaundice (over destruction of red blood cells) so it may be worth footnoting that jaundice does not always indicate a liver problem.

The liver is a very complicated organ. But I think you have made a great start

you are incorrect in some of your statements - the liver is not a blood reservoir. You may be thinking of the old thinking about the spleen which is not true anyway. The liver does not store fat - adipose tissue does

re causes of jaundice the terms you are looking for are prehepatic, hepatic and posthepatic jaundice. I could do a whole guide entry on the classification of jaundice including conjugated and unconjugated bilirubinaemia but it wouldn't appeal to most people. I could do a very technical and accurate entry on liver disease but who would read it? Why not just read Dame Sherlock's textbook?

""It may be better to say that the liver has a vital role in 'metabolising' carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as the storage of glycogen, fat, iron and some vitamins, the production of bile, and acting as a blood reservoir.""

My apology - i had restructured the sentence and didn't delete the second 'fat' after C+Ping a phrase that had originally been at the end of the sentence..

It should read

""It may be better to say that the liver has a vital role in 'metabolising' carbohydrates, fats and proteins as well as the storage of glycogen, iron and some vitamins, the production of bile, and acting as a blood reservoir.""



The liver is a large reservoir of blood due to the functions it performs ie assisting in the 'cleansing' of waste products from the blood.It has a large flow of blood and therefore is a resvoir of blood. I was not indicating that the liver is simply a bag of blood, but that is functions require it to be so well supplied. I was not thinking of the spleen.

the liver has a large blood supply but of course 80% of its blood supply is from the portal vein. Reservoir is not really the right term - the venous system is the reservoir for intravascular volume esp the great veins

I've made the entry a bit more comprehensive but hopefully still very readable