MASSIVE SARCOIDOSIS OF LIVER - REPORT OF 2 CASES

Sarcoidosis involves the liver in approximately 65% of all patients, but laboratory evidence of liver disease is usually minimal and clinical manifestations rare. In two patients with massive liver infiltration, both followed closely with serial liver function tests and percutaneous biopsies, one died after repeated hemorrhage from esophageal varices 3 years after diagnosis, while the other, still living, has developed no evidence of portal hypertension after 4 years, although her liver changes were fully as severe. Both were treated with steroids. The mechanisms of the portal hypertension is still in doubt, although there is some evidence that it is due to presinusoidal block, without the classic pathologic changes of cirrhosis. © 1968 Hoeber Medical Division • Harper & Row.