Gaucher disease: spectrum of sonographic findings in the liver.
OBJECTIVE
Our large tertiary clinic for patients with Gaucher disease has used sonography as the preferred modality to monitor hepatosplenomegaly in hundreds of patients for more than 18 years. With the advent of specific enzyme replacement therapy (ERT), sonographic monitoring of changes in both hepatomegaly and the echogenicity of the hepatic tissue may highlight features that are amenable to ERT.


METHODS
All patients (500) seen at presentation and at annual or semiannual routine visits have undergone sonographic examinations by a single senior radiologist (I.H.-H.).


RESULTS
Thirty-nine patients (7.8%) had sonographic evidence of hepatic disease (21 male and 18 female; age range, 18-90 years); 26 (66.7%) of these received ERT, and 10 (25.6%) were splenectomized.


CONCLUSIONS
Liver findings are relatively rare. Among 500 patients, there was no instance of computed tomographic findings that had not been previously shown by sonography. Radiologists should be acquainted with the variable sonographic spectrum of the Gaucher liver. If hepatic lesions are small, hyperechoic, and slowly evolving, one may surmise that they are due to Gaucher cell accumulation. However, special attention should be paid to progressive deterioration and irregularities in liver texture because other metabolic processes and cancers must be ruled out.
Hadas-Halpern
Irith
I
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center, Jerusalem, Israel.
Deeb
Maher
M
Abrahamov
Ayala
A
Zimran
Ari
A
Elstein
Deborah
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005776:Gaucher Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult