Liver failure in adult Still's disease during corticosteroid treatment.

Adult Still's disease is a well-characterized rheumatic disorder of unknown origin, which may affect multiple organs and may have a fatal course. However, liver failure has rarely been described in adult Still's disease. We present the case of a 25-year-old woman who was admitted with acute liver failure 2 years after the start of symptoms (arthritis, fever, sore throat) of a yet undefined rheumatic disease. She had been treated with prednisolone for 2 months before admission. The diagnosis of adult Still's disease was made in accordance with well-established criteria. Other causes of liver failure were excluded. Withdrawal of prednisolone did not affect the course of liver disease. Ursodeoxycholic acid therapy was started when the patient slowly began to recover. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of adult Still's disease reported in which hepatic failure developed when other symptoms were well controlled by corticosteroid treatment. Copyright 2003 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins