Anatomic Pathology: Liver Pathology

332a) This glass slide is a section of liver obtained from a surgical explant liver specimen. Based on the features seen in this slide, the patient who underwent liver transplantation was most likely:

• Congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF) is one of the fibropolycystic liver diseases, which stems from abnormalities of remodeling and maturation of the embryonic bile duct plates (ductal plate malformations or DPMs).

• The characteristic pathology includes numerous bile ducts of irregular contour, angulation, and dilatation (sometimes with bile) embedded in portal and periportal fibrosis, with interspersed normal lobules of liver parenchyma.

• CHF is a cause of portal hypertension in pediatrics, with well preserved synthetic function.

• The presentation of CHF may be in infants (organomegaly, respiratory distress, systemic hypertension), juvenile form (portal hypertension with hepatosplenomegaly and/or bleeding varices) or may be asymptomatic.

• CHF is considered a variant of autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) in which mutation of the PKHD gene that encodes fibrocystin/polyductin on the bile duct epithelial primary cilium contributes to the abnormal remodeling of the bile duct plates.

• Routine serum liver function tests are typically normal in CHF, although alkaline phosphatise occasionally is elevated.

• Patients with CHF are not jaundiced and there is no histological cholestasis (except for the occasional inspissated bile seen in the ductal plate malformations).

Everson GT, Taylor MR, Doctor RB: Polycystic disease of the liver. Hepatology 2004;40:774-782.

Nakanuma Y, Harada K, Sato Y, Ikeda H: Recent progress in the etiopathogenesis of pediatric biliary disease, particularly Caroli’s disease with congenital hepatic fibrosis and biliary atresia. Histol Histopathol 2010;25: 223-235.

Raynaud P, Tate J, Callens C, et al: Classification of ductal plate malformations based on distinct pathogenic mechanisms of biliary dysmorphogenesis. Hepatology 2011;53:1959-1966.

Summerfield JA, Nagafuchi Y, Sherlock S, Cadafalch J, Scheuer PJ: Hepatobiliary fibropolycystic diseases. A clinical and histological review of 51 patients. J Hepatol 1986;2:141-156.

 
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