Biliary malformation with renal tubular insufficiency in two male infants: third family report

We report two male sibs, born to non‐consanguineous healthy parents, who showed arthrogryposis, cholestatic jaundice and tubular renal insufficiency. The liver biopsy of the first case showed scanty hypoplastic biliary ducts. This association, first reported by Lutz and Richner in 1973, is a distinct syndrome, characterized by intra‐extrahepatic biliary hypoplasia, and described in McKusick's catalogue under the number 210550. All reported cases were males and consanguinity was found in two families. For these reasons, the possibility of an autosomal recessive or of an X‐linked transmission should be considered. A similar association, in reports by Nezelof, Di Rocco, and Saraiva, without intra‐extrahepatic atresia but with a cholestatic pigmentary liver disease was considered as another condition (no. 301820) by McKusick in 1992.