Abstract
A new method was presented for morphometrical examination of the intrahepatic bile ducts designed upon a view that the hepatic arterial branches and the bile ducts run parallel in the portal tiad. The present experiment was carried out using the method to know the level and extent of the intrahepatic bile duct destruction in the livers of PBC. It was shown that in PBC livers (23 cases) the bile ducts with diameter below approximately 70-80 μ were destructed and the smaller the duct, the more the destruction. The destruction of intrahepatic bile ducts was neither so extensive in the 1st stage of PBC nor progressive in further stage of PBC, even in cirrhotic liver.
It was suggested that this marked destruction of intrahepatic bile duct (especially smaller bile ducts) might be an important factor for occurrence of chronic intrahepatic cholestasis and apparently progressive and fatal course of PBC.
