Extrahepatic biliary atresia versus neonatal hepatitis

Mowat, A. P., Psacharopoulos, H. D., and Williams, R. (1976). Archives of Disease in Childhood, 51, 763. Extrahepatic biliary atresia versus neonatal hepatitis: review of 137 prospectively investigated infants. In a prospective regional survey of neonatal hepatitis syndrome 32 infants had extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA) and 103 had hepatitis. No cause for the lesion was found in infants with extrahepatic biliary atresia, but in 32 with hepatitis a specific cause was identified, 24 having genetic deficiency of the serum protein oc1-antitrypsin. No differences were observed in parental age, mother's health in pregnancy, month of birth, birth order, or sex of the infants. Familial idiopathic hepatitis occurred in 3 of 67 sibs of patients with idiopathic hepatitis, but the 33 sibs ofEHBA patients had no liver disease. Of the infants with hepatitis, 36 were of low birthweight, <2-5 kg, and 23 were born prematurely. Infants with biliary atresia were all of normal birthweight and only one was born prematurely. Consideration of clinical and biochemical abnormalities in the first 2 months of life showed no differences between the two groups except that infants with EHBA were