Figure 1
(a) Steatosis can be seen in varying amounts in a variety of liver diseases. The etiology of the steatosis may be due to a toxin, hepatitis C viral infection or host factors, but often cannot be determined by histologic evaluation. This is an example of steatosis, large and small droplet type, in hepatitis C in an overweight, diabetic individual. (b) Microvesicular steatosis is often initially considered as swollen, ‘ballooned’ hepatocytes. As shown in this example of acute fatty liver of pregnancy, the hepatocytes are enlarged and the cytoplasm is reticulated by the small aggregates of steatosis. Because of the significance of the clinical situations in which microvesicular steatosis is the dominant finding, stains on frozen sections are highly recommended for confirmation (photograph courtesy of Dr Linda Ferrell).
