hepatic

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1. Of, relating to, or resembling the liver.
2. Acting on or occurring in the liver.

A drug that acts on the liver.

[Middle English epatic, from Old French hepatique, from Latin hēpaticus, from Greek hēpatikos, from hēpar, hēpat-, liver.]

Pertaining to the liver.

Emanating from or pertaining to liver.

• h. abscess — common in cattle as a sequel to rumenitis; characterized by fever, leukocytosis and pain on percussion over the liver.
• h. acinus — see liver acinus.
• h. angle — the angle made by the caudolateral border of the caudate liver lobe on abdominal radiography.
• h. arterioportal fistula — shunt between the hepatic artery and the portal vein.
• h. atrophy and nodular regeneration — a disease of dogs, due to unknown cause but possibly a toxin, characterized by nodular regenerative hyperplasia and atrophy of severely fatty hepatocellular parenchyma and gradually developing, always fatal, liver insufficiency.
• h. cell — hepatocyte.
• h. cirrhosis — diffuse hepatic fibrosis associated with the formation of structurally abnormal, regenerative, parenchymal nodules. Initiated by hepatocyte necrosis.
• h. coccidiosis — spoken of but recorded only once in a calf.
• h. congestion — a common feature of congestive heart failure and other circulatory embarrassments of venous drainage of the liver; occurs also in anaphylaxis.
• diffuse h. fibrosis — results from continued, chronic hepatic injury or the summation of repeated bouts of zonal necrosis; the resulting fibrosis links portal areas and hepatic venules and bisects liver lobules.
• h. distomatosis — infection of the liver with flukes, e.g. Fasciola hepatica, Fascioloides magna, Metorchus conjunctus. See also fascioliasis.
• h. diverticulum — an outgrowth of the embryonic duodenum; it divides into a pars hepatica and a pars cystica, forerunners of the liver and the gallbladder respectively.
• h. duct — see hepatic duct.
• h. fibrosis — a reaction to chronic injury to the liver; includes biliary fibrosis, postnecrotic scarring, diffuse hepatic fibrosis and periacinar fibrosis.

  Hepatic fibrosis with nodular hyperplasia. By permission from Nelson RW, Couto CG, Small Animal Internal Medicine, Mosby, 2003

• h. injury — see hepatitis.
• h. jaundice — jaundice caused by disease of hepatic parenchyma in contrast to hemolytic and obstructive jaundice.
• h. lipidosis — see fatty liver.
• h. microsomal enzymes — see microsomal enzymes.
• h. necrosis — death of hepatic parenchyma which may be single cell (necrobiosis), or multicell in piecemeal, focal, periacinar, midzonal, periportal or paracentral locations. Massive necrosis refers to events in individual acini in which all hepatocytes are dead.
• omphalogenic h. abscess — abscess resulting from infection of the umbilicus and direct vascular extension to the liver.
• h. periacinar fibrosis — fibrosis limited to the zones around hepatic venules; a response to congestive heart failure or to intoxication.
• h. photosensitization — see secondary photosensitization.
• h. sinusoids — the intralobular vascular supply system; lined by endothelial cells and stellate macrophages.