Graft vs. host disease after liver transplantation in humans: a report of four cases.

Four cases of patients in whom graft vs. host disease developed after liver transplantation are described. The clinical course of each patient was similar with fever, pancytopenia, diarrhea and a skin rash developing 1 or 2 mo after liver transplantation. The clinical diagnosis was made from skin or colon biopsy specimens. Liver dysfunction did not occur in the patients at the time of diagnosis. Extrahepatic donor DNA was identified in the three patients it was tested for. Three patients died from the complications of the disease primarily related to sepsis. The other patient recovered from the graft vs. host disease but died from lymphoproliferative disease.