The histologic pattern of "biliary tract pathology" is accurate for the diagnosis of biliary complications

Abstract

A histologic pattern comprising centrilobular cholestasis and portal changes including edema, predominantly neutrophil polymorph infiltration, cholangiolar proliferation, and cholangiolitis is well known to correspond to biliary obstruction. This pattern, referred as biliary tract pathology (BTP) in this text, remains unclear in terms of its clinical significance. We aimed to assess the incidence, timing, and diagnostic accuracy of BTP after liver transplantation. All 248 liver biopsies and clinical records, from 94 patients, including 30 living donor, 17 split, 15 domino, and 32 cadaveric full-size primary liver transplantation, were reviewed. BTP was diagnosed in 21% of biopsies from 31% of patients at a median of 28 days after transplantation (range, 5-763 days). When radiologic imaging of the biliary tree was taken as the gold standard, biopsy was found to have a sensitivity of 87% (95% confidence interval, 73%-100%) and a specificity of 87% (95% confidence interval, 80%-95%) for the diagnosis of biliary complications. An underlying clinical condition was found in 86% of cases, which included biliary complications (69%), arterial thrombosis (3%), sepsis (10%), and recurrent disease (3%). In 14% of cases, BTP remained unexplained. In conclusion, BTP after liver transplantation has clinical significance in most cases, with a particular emphasis for true biliary complications. This pattern must incite radiographic verification of the biliary tract.