Risk Factors for Liver Disorders
Category | Risk Factors |
|---|---|
Acquired | Alcohol use Blood transfusions (particularly before 1992)* Body piercing* Medications (prescription and nonprescription), illicit substances, and herbal product use Exposure to other liver toxins Exposure to hepatitis* Fontan palliation for hypoplastic left heart syndrome or other single ventricle heart disease High-risk sexual practices*† Needlesticks* Parenteral or intranasal illicit drug use* Tattoos* |
Familial | Family history of disorders such as primary biliary cholangitis, hemochromatosis, Wilson disease, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, and hepatitis B (which can be vertically transmitted) |
* These factors increase risk of hepatitis in particular. † High-risk sexual practices include: new sexual partner or more than one sexual partner in the last 3 months and engaged in anal sex in the last 3 months; sexual contact with a person who ever had a positive HIV test; sexual contact with a person who used nonprescription injection drugs in the past 3 months or a person who engaged in sex for money or drugs in the past 3 months. | |