Patients and Methods
Description of the patient’s clinical course, features and
results
Patient 1: Twenty-three year-old female, family history: Negative
for diabetes, a brother with thyroiditis and idiopathic
thrombocytopenic
purpura
(ITP), a sister with
vitiligo
, and another
with dermatomyositis.
The patient was seen for the first time at the age of five with
symptoms of
hyporexia
, abdominal pain, and minimal
ictericia
. She
was clinically and biochemically diagnosed with hepatitis. However,
because the latter presented without
ictericia
and with persistence
alterations of transaminases, the possibility was proposed of
autoimmune hepatitis, and immunological studies, and a
percutaneous (p.c.) liver biopsy were performed. The results of the
liver tissue histopathology revealed the presence of
lympho
plasmocytic
infiltrate, macrophages, and plasma cells. In the portal
space, liver lobe necrotic foci, rupture of the portal space adjacent to
the limiting plate, and inflammatory infiltrate extending to the hepatic
parenchyma were identified (Figure 1A)