J Ludwig, R L MacCarty, N F LaRusso, R A Krom, R H Wiesner
We studied intrahepatic bile ducts of five patients with chronic ulcerative colitis and primary sclerosing cholangitis. The livers had been obtained at the time of orthotopic liver transplantation. After specimen cholangiography and perfusion fixation, sequential blocks and sections from portal tracts were studied, combining light microscopy with scanning electron microscopy. In vivo cholangiograms were studied also. The specimens revealed: absence of normal bile ducts; presence of thin-walled tubular or saccular cholangiectases with semicircular and annular fibrous crests, without evidence of superinfection; cholangiectases with secondary acute or chronic-cellular cholangitis, with or without cholangitic abscesses; fibrous cholangitis without ductal dilatation; transformation of bile ducts into fibrous cords which were either solid or contained remnants of bile duct epithelium, and complete loss of bile ducts...
July 1986: Hepatology: Official Journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases