Diagnosis: Congenital hepatic fibrosis (CHF)
• 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).