SARCOIDOSIS, SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS, AND CHRONIC ATROPHIC AUTOIMMUNE GASTRITIS - A CASE OF INFILTRATIVE SCLEROSING CHOLANGITIS

We report a patient in whom sarcoidosis coexisted with sclerosing chol angitis and chronic atrophic autoimmune gastritis. There are some auto immune diseases associated with primary sclerosing cholangitis; the di fference between sarcoidosis and all other autoimmune diseases associa ted with primary sclerosing cholangitis is the ability of the former t o damage the biliary tree. Moreover: when sarcoidosis behaves like cho lestasis it can damage the biliary tree! mimicking primary sclerosing cholangitis, with high immunoglobulin M bur without inflammatory bowel disease and p-ANCAs negative. We believe that it should be regarded a s a single disease ''infiltrative sclerosing cholangitis'' because thi s is not a primary disease and sarcoidosis would be responsible for a beaded biliary tree.