Detection of large intrahepatic cholangiectases in patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis by endoscopic retrograde cholangiography.

Cholangiographic features of primary sclerosing cholangitis are multiple strictures and alternating dilated and normal segments of both intra- and extrahepatic bile ducts. Formerly, intrahepatic cholangiectases have been shown only in explanted livers, but we now describe the presence of large intrahepatic cholangiectases in a 22-year-old male patient with primary sclerosing cholangitis, visualized using a balloon catheter at endoscopic retrograde cholangiography. Cholangiectases in this patient appear to have been caused by the disease and not as a result of prestenotic dilatations. To treat possible early complications of this condition, we recommend looking for these cholangiectases when diagnostic endoscopic retrograde cholangiography is performed in primary sclerosing cholangitis.