Cytopathic liver injury in acute delta virus hepatitis.
Hepatitis delta-virus (the delta-agent) is now recognized as a cause of acute hepatitis, fulminant hepatitis, chronic hepatitis, and cirrhosis in hepatitis B surface antigen-positive hosts. This report describes the clinical course and liver biopsy histopathology of acute delta-hepatitis in a young American woman with presumed chronic hepatitis B infection. The liver biopsy specimen features included severe cytotoxic and cytopathic hepatocellular damage, small droplet vacuolar liver cell degeneration, and few parenchymal inflammatory cells, lesions resembling epidemic delta-hepatitis in Venezuelan Indians and experimental chimpanzee delta-superinfection. This case suggests that this form of cytopathic liver injury is an important morphologic expression of delta-virus hepatitis that deserves wider diagnostic recognition.
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D005260:Female; D003699:Hepatitis D / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*