[Transient acanthocytosis in a patient with liver cirrhosis. Study of red cell and plasma lipids (author's transl)].

The authors report a case of major acanthocytosis which regressed spontaneously in a cirrhotic patient. The usual lipid abnormalities: considerable rise in free red cell cholesterol and lesser rise in phospholipid, regressed concommitantly to the disappearance of acanthocytes. No change in the main liver function tests was, however, observed. The etiological mechanisms of acanthocytosis in cirrhosis are probably multiple, and their interactions are compplex. The exchange of abnormal lipoproteins between the plasma and the red cell membrane is the last theory to be considered. On the other hand, no argument could explain the disappearance of the acanthocytosis, this phenomenon is considered up to now irreversible and a sign of the gravity of hepatic lesions.