. There were various confounding variables: pre-existing liver diseases (n = 6) including genuine autoimmune hepatitis or alcoholic or cardiac hepatopathy; hepatotoxicity induced by interferon or fluoxetine (n = 2); marginally increased serum activities of alanine aminotransferase (n = 2) or gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (n = 2) of unassessable causality; a mixed group consisting of unassessable cases (n = 6) and cases with questionable, poorly documented hepato-biliary diseases (n = 3); and