Hepatic sinusoidal dilatation in Hodgkin's disease.
Examination of needle liver biopsy specimens from 46 patients with Hodgkin's disease revealed sinusoidal dilatation with a predominantly centrolobular and midlobular localisation in 23 cases (50%). It was present in 90% of patients with general symptoms and in only 20% of those without them (p less than 0.001), and it was unrelated to the staging, the existence of hepatic infiltration by the disease and the lymph node histology. The pathogenesis of the sinusoidal ectasia is not known, but it might be a consequence of an alteration of the sinusoidal barrier, since no abnormality of the hepatocytes or of the hepatic venules was detected at light microscopy. Sinusoidal dilatation may be considered as a further systemic manifestation of Hodgkin's disease.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D004108:Dilatation, Pathologic; D005260:Female; D006689:Hodgkin Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged