96. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Pathologie e. V ...

FR-P-104
Histopathological evaluation of the iron content in liver biopsies
J . Kelterborn 1 , K . Zöller 1 , J . Biet 1 , Y . Chen 1 , A . Herrmann 2 , M . Kiehntopf 3 ,
A . Stallmach 4 , I . Petersen 1
1 Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Institute of Pathology, Jena, 2 Friedrich-
Schiller-University of Jena, Institute of Internal Medicine, Jena, 3 Friedrich-
Schiller-University of Jena, Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Jena, 4 Friedrich-
Schiller-University of Jena, Institute for Internal Medicine, Jena
Aims. Hereditary hemochromatosis is the most common autosomal recessive
genetic disease in Northern Europe. Iron overload leads to serious
damage of various organ systems. Early diagnosis is desirable due
to the possibility of prevention of severe organ dysfunction. However,
the majority of patients are diagnosed in adulthood in the context of an
uncertain liver pathology. Liver biopsy is an essential tool of analysis. In
the present work two new iron scores were tested for their validity in the
diagnosis of hemochromatosis.
Methods. At the Institute for Pathology of the University Hospital of Jena
all liver samples of a 2-year period were retrieved from the pathology files
and reviewed. In total, 2326 cases were assessed of which 60 were selected
for an in-depth study on iron content. The mean age of the patients was
59 years, 72% originated from male patients. In all 60 samples a mutation
analysis of the two most common gene loci in hemochromatosis were
performed, i.e. HFE282 and HFE63. Moreover, using the clinical diagnosis
documentation system, laboratory values of liver diseases and iron
storage diseases were analyzed. The assessment of the iron content of the
liver biopsies were done by the Prussian blue stain applying two scores
with comprised a published 21-tier and a newly developed 5-tier grading
system.
Results. It was shown that both iron scores were highly correlated with
each other (p