An electron microscopic study of liver biopsies of women under steroid therapy was carried out. Liver biopsies taken with a Menghini needle from five healthy young women during their last trimester of pregnancy revealed elongation, gigantism and lamellar osmiophilic matrical inclusions in approximately 10% of the population of mitochondria per cell examined. Liver biopsies taken from six women with hydatidiform mole and from one women with choriocarcinoma revealed mild focal dilatation and vesiculation of both the rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum. Mitochondrial modifications were present and included gigantism, pleomorphism and also lamellar osmiophilic inclusions in 10 to 20% of the cases. In one case of hydatidiform mole this change was present in more than 60% of mitochondria examined. The findings are not interpreted as pathological but rather as an exaggeration of a physiological change brought about by an increased metabolic demand during pregnancy or else to a more direct effect of steroid hormones on liver cell organelles.

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Epidemiologic data obtained in several series of trophoblastic tumors in different parts of the world have revealed that where undernourishment, high birth rate and overpopulation prevail, a high incidence of these tumors is observed.1,12,23 In contrast, in countries with‐high standards of living and low birth rate, a low incidence of chorionic tumors is found.8,13,19,25 In a previous paper the authors reported a high frequency of hydatidiform moles complicating pregnancies in their hospital.16 Since this chorionic growth is often complicated by choriocarcinoma, a high frequency of this malignant tumor was also expected to occur among the patients coming to the General Hospital. The present study examines epidemiologic, clinical and pathologic aspects in a group of 40 patients with the diagnosis of choriocarcinoma hospitalized in the General Hospital. The patients seen at the General Hospital of Mexico City represent a population segment of Mexico City and nearby population centers with poor environmental and socioeconomic conditions, high index of illiteracy and little if any hygienic education. For this reason the epidemiologic data obtained in this study may not be representative of the country at large, but may be taken as representative of similar groups elsewhere in Mexico.

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