re persistent vs chronic in article rm k i t hsdndev harvard edu rind enterprise bih harvard edu david rind writes in article enea enea apple com enea applelink apple com 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 kenneth gilbert university of pittsburgh general internal medicine dammit not a programmer
