Neonatal cholestasis in two siblings: a variant of Dubin-Johnson syndrome?

OBJECTIVE

Two Japanese brothers with neonatal cholestasis associated with pigment granules in the hepatocytes and hepatosteatosis were evaluated for the possible role of hepatosteatosis in the Dubin-Johnson syndrome.

METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS

The morphology of pigment accumulation and the laboratory data in these cases were examined. The elevation of urinary coproporphrin isomer I to more than 90% and the presence cholestasis resembled that in the Dubin-Johnson syndrome, but the hypertriglyceridaemia ( > 1.13 mmol/L as triolein) and the hepatosteatosis differed. Both infants were thought to have familial hypertriglyceridaemia. However, this diagnosis was difficult to confirm in the absence of data on the normal values of apolipoprotein and lipoprotein isomer for infants.

CONCLUSIONS

A neonatal variant of the Dubin-Johnson syndrome may account for the unusual findings in these infants.