Hepatic sinusoidal dilatation related to oral contraceptives: a study of two patients showing ultrastructural changes.

2 cases are reported in which liver biopsies were performed for questionably abnormal liver scans in women who had been using oral contraceptives (OCs) for 5 and 6 years and in which sinusoidal dilatation was the only finding on biopsy. After the steroid drugs were discontinued hepatic enlargement tenderness and pain disappeared. Ultrastructural changes included dilatation of endoplasmic reticula with accumulation of granular electron dense material disruption of mitochondrial membranes and deposits of collagen fibers in the intercellular spaces between hepatocytes and in the spaces of Disse. Clinical and morphologic abnormalities of the liver have been reported in females using OCs. These include cholestasis focal nodular hyperplasia hematomas adenomas Budd-Chiari syndrome and more rarely malignant hepatic tumors.