Chronic active hepatitis associated with etretinate therapy

Acute hepatitis developed in a patient taking etretinate for severe psoriasis. Discontinuation of therapy was followed by progression of the histological changes to chronic active hepatitis, despite improvement of his clinical and laboratory status. This is the third reported case of chronic active hepatitis associated with etretinate therapy, and the second patient in our group of twenty-two etretinate-treated patients with severe psoriasis to develop clinically significant hepatic disease. Immunological evaluation revealed a marked increase in the patient's OKMI-staining population of peripheral mononuclear cells and augmentation of Con A-induced lymphocyte blastogenesis in the presence of etretinate.