[Hepatic involvement in boutonneuse fever (author's transl)]

Boutonneuse fever is a rickettsioses which is endemic in the Mediterranean countries. Since 1972 we have had the chance to study eight observations os this disease (6 in the last year) and our attention has been drawn by the constant hepatic involvement. This was biological in all cases and histopathologic in the five patients submitted to a liver biopsy. Functional liver tests showed an elevation of SGOT and SGPT in six patients, as well as of the alkaline phosphatase and/or gamma-GT in five. No signs of hepatocellular insufficiency were detected and posterior controls demonstrated a complete normalization of the analytical parameters. As regards the histopathologic findings the most important was the fibrous enlargement of the porta spaces with slight infiltration by round cells, hyperplasia of the Kupffer's cells, and accumulations of histiocytes and lymphocytes. In no patient did we observed epithelioid granulomas. The authors conclude that the hepatic involvement in boutonneuse fever is benign but very constant, which means that it ought to be known about and that it has no defined histopathologic patterns.