Semin Liver Dis 2011; 31(1): 001-002
DOI: 10.1055/s-0031-1272830
FOREWORD

© Thieme Medical Publishers

Contemporary Issues in Liver Pathology

Prodromos Hytiroglou1 , Swan N. Thung2
  • 1Department of Pathology, Aristotle University Medical School, Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 2The Lillian and Henry M. Stratton-Hans Popper Department of Pathology, The Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, New York
Further Information

Publication History

Publication Date:
22 February 2011 (online)

The current issue of Seminars in Liver Disease is devoted to contemporary issues of hepatic pathology. In this era of rapid medical advances, pathology continues to play a very important role in the diagnosis and the assessment of severity of common and rare diseases, and to provide the interface between basic and clinical research. The biologic nature and clinical course of a variety of diseases are still elucidated by histopathologic study and clinicopathologic correlation, while the discovery of new immunohistochemical markers provides additional tools for research and diagnosis. Furthermore, understanding the pathologic basis of diseases is a prerequisite for a meaningful understanding of the corresponding molecular changes, clinical manifestations, and radiologic features, and for planning appropriate treatments.

In this issue of Seminars, Morotti and collaborators from the Departments of Pathology and Pediatrics at The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City review the pathologic findings of progressive familial intrahepatic cholestasis (PFIC) type 1, 2, and 3, which represent recently characterized conditions that are due to mutations in specific genes involved in bile acid formation and transport. Electron microscopy and recently developed immunohistochemical markers are useful in the diagnosis of these disorders.

Fabris and Strazzabosco from the Department of Surgical and Gastroenterological Sciences of the University of Padova and from the Department of Internal Medicine of Yale University provide an in-depth review of the properties of the different cell types and mediators involved in the epithelial–mesenchymal interactions occurring in biliary diseases, and analyze the molecular mechanisms underlying this cross-talk as they relate to liver repair.

Tsui and collaborators from the Departments of Pathology, Medicine and Geriatrics, and Radiology of Caritas Medical Centre in Hong Kong provide a fresh look at hepatolithiasis (also known as recurrent pyogenic cholangitis), a disease that is increasingly encountered outside of endemic areas, due to global migration. The authors discuss the radiologic and histologic features that are important in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of this condition, and emphasize the importance of a multidisciplinary team approach for optimal patient outcome.

Sempoux from the Department of Pathology of the Saint Luc University Clinics in Brussels and collaborators from the Departments of Surgery and Pathology at The Mount Sinai Medical Center review their extensive experience with intrahepatic peripheral cholangiocarcinoma, and provide evidence suggesting that cholangiocarcinomas with unusual (“nonclassical”) histologic features may often be related to chronic hepatitis C infection.

Ward and Waxman from the Departments of Pathology and Medicine at The Mount Sinai Medical Center review the features of the fibrolamellar variant of hepatocellular carcinoma, a neoplasm with enigmatic etiology, emphasizing the genomic alterations, which appear to be fewer and less frequent than those of other hepatic malignancies, such as classic hepatocellular carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, and hepatoblastoma.

Guido and Burra from the Pathology Unit and the Department of Gastroenterological and Surgical Sciences of the University of Padova review the pathologic and clinical features of de novo autoimmune hepatitis, a recently recognized disease occurring in liver allografts. Diagnosis of this serious disorder of obscure pathogenesis is often challenging, and requires careful clinicopathologic correlation.

Germani and collaborators from the Departments of Surgery and Pathology of the Royal Free Hospital in London and from the Department of Pathology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki provide an update regarding the assessment of fibrosis in liver biopsy specimens. Although histologic examination remains the gold standard for staging chronic liver diseases, quantitative assessment of hepatic fibrosis by image analysis holds promise as a prognostic marker, and as a means to validate noninvasive markers of fibrosis.

Last, but not least, Bioulac-Sage and collaborators from the Department of Pathology of the University of Bordeaux 2 and from Genomique Fonetionnelle des Tumeurs Solides in Paris revisit the pathology of benign hepatocellular nodules using novel immunohistochemical markers, derived from molecular studies. Their methodology allows the identification of clinically relevant subtypes of hepatocellular adenoma, as well as the differential diagnosis between unusual cases of focal nodular hyperplasia and hepatocellular adenoma.

We are thankful to the authors for sharing their knowledge and experience with the readers of this issue of Seminars. We sincerely hope that this issue will be useful for pathologists, clinicians, and other scientists involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and research of hepatic diseases.

Swan N ThungM.D. 

Department of Pathology, Box 1194

The Mount Sinai Medical Center, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029

Email: swan.thung@mountsinai.org

    >