ABSTRACT— We studied liver changes in the hepatic biopsies of five patients with hyperthyroidism. A characteristic histopathologic picture consisting of mild to moderate intrahepatocytic cholestasis, lobular inflammatory infiltrate with some eosinophils, and Kupffer cell hyperplasia was found in all cases. We discuss the specificity, clinico‐pathological correlations and the possible pathophysiology of these lesions.

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Acute hepatitis C virus infection produces clinical and biochemical features that is non-specific and indistinguishable from those caused by other hepatotropic viruses. The specific diagnosis of acute hepatitis C virus infection is based on the detection of serum RNA-HCV through a technique of PCR whose result will be positive after 1-2 weeks of the initial contact with the virus. The anti-bodies against HCV are detected later (after 7-8 weeks on average), and are not useful, as an isolated determination, in distinguishing acute infection from chronic infection or in clearing the virus (spontaneous or following treatment). Fifty-five to eighty-five percent of patients with acute HCV infection do not clear the virus and develop a chronic infection with risk of evolution to cirrhosis and of developing hepatocellular carcinoma. For this reason, the present tendency is to treat with interferon all those patients in whom RNA-HCV remains positive after 3-4 months following diagnosis of acute infection.

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