Case Report
Fulminant Hepatic Failure Secondary to
Primary Hepatic Angiosarcoma
Ayokunle T. Abegunde,
1,2
Efe Aisien,
1
Benjamin Mba,
1
Rohini Chennuri,
3
and Marin Sekosan
3
1
Department of Medicine, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
2
Department of Medicine, Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center,
Oklahoma City, OK 73104, USA
3
Department of Pathology, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago, IL 60612, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Ayokunle T. Abegunde; abegs@doctors.org.uk
Received 11 December 2014; Accepted 7 February 2015
Academic Editor: Haruhiko Sugimura
Copyright © 2015 Ayokunle T. Abegunde et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
Background. Hepatic angiosarcoma is a rare and aggressive tumor that oten presents at an advanced stage with nonspeciic
symptoms. Objective. To report a case of primary hepatic angiosarcoma in an otherwise healthy man with normal liver function
tests two months prior to presenting with a short period of jaundice that progressed to fulminant hepatic failure. Methods. Case
report and review of literature. Conclusion. his case illustrates the rapidity of progression to death ater the onset of symptoms in
a patient with hepatic angiosarcoma. Research on early diagnostic strategies and newer therapies are needed to improve prognosis
in this rare and poorly understood malignancy with limited treatment options.
1. Case Report
A 75-year-old man presented to our hospital with three-
week history of anorexia, abdominal fullness, chills, and
three-day history of jaundice. He was diagnosed with AV
nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) six months earlier which
terminated with the Valsalva maneuver. His medication
included Diltiazem and Aspirin. He had no further episodes
of AVNRT and liver enzymes were normal at routine follow-
up in the cardiology clinic two months before presentation.
On admission he was afebrile and reported no abdom-
inal pain, hematemesis, melena, or pale stools. Physical
examination revealed a frail looking man with skin and
scleral icterus, normal heart sounds, and blood pressure.
Abdominal examination revealed epigastric tenderness with-
out organomegaly or ascites. Laboratory tests were signiicant
for total bilirubin 9 mg/dL, albumin 4.0 g/dL, alkaline phos-
phatase 383 U/L, gamma-glutamyl transferase 701 U/L, aspar-
tate aminotransferase, 104 U/L, alanine aminotransferase
206 U/L, and lactate dehydrogenase 451 U/L. Carcinoem-
bryonic antigen (CEA) and alpha fetoprotein (AFP) levels
were normal and CA19-9 was 38.8 IU/mL. Human immun-
odeiciency virus (HIV) and hepatitis panel were negative.
Chest X-ray was normal and ECG showed sinus tachycardia.
Abdominal ultrasound scan was negative for cholelithiasis
and cholecystitis. Contrast enhanced triple-phase comput-
erized tomography scan of his abdomen showed a hepatic
mass measuring 13 × 11 × 10 cm with small dilated bile ducts
surrounding the mass (Figure 1). here was no common bile
duct (CBD) dilatation. Liver abscess, metastases, atypical
hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and hepatic cystadenocar-
cinoma were considered in the diferential diagnosis. He
developed a fever on the second day of hospitalization and
was started on piperacillin-tazobactam. Pan cultures were
negative and he continued to spike fevers despite intravenous
antibiotics. Eventually, his fever subsided and he underwent
CT guided percutaneous biopsy of the hepatic mass. He was
discharged home uneventfully 4 days later. Histopathology
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Case Reports in Gastrointestinal Medicine
Volume 2015, Article ID 869746, 8 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/869746