Idiopathic Neonatal Hepatitis in One DNA Fingerprint Identical Twin

Abstract

For the practicing pediatrician, the most commonly encountered causes of neonatal cholestasis are idiopathic neonatal hepatitis (INH) and extrahepatic biliary atresia (EHBA). However, despite extensive research, little improvement in our understanding of the etiology of INH and EHBA has occurred.¹ It has been proposed that both of them may be part of a continuum of hepatobiliary disease caused by a common insult with a different predominant injury site.² In this respect, it is interesting that, up to the present, several cases of discordance for EHBA in twins of various zygosity have been reported,^3-8 whereas no data are available about either concordance or discordance for INH both in monozygotic and dizygotic twins.