Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and lobar pneumonia. Fine structure of the liver.

Ultrastructural changes appeared in liver biopsy specimens from eight patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency who developed jaundice during the course of lobar pneumonia. The observed changed indicate that the hyperbilirubinemia and jaundice that develop in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency with lobar pneumonia are caused partly by hemolysis and partly by intrahepatic cholestasis. The cholestasis may be caused by a genetic predisposition in enzyme-deficient individuals; the hemolysis may be induced by pulmonary infection in individuals with an enzyme deficiency.