Widespread Arterial Spiders in a Case of Latent Hepatitis, With Resolution After Therapy*

SUMMARY.— A young woman developed widespread vascular spiders 9 months prior to admission. She was not pregnant and all tests of liver function were normal. A chronic hepatitis, possibly auto‐immune in origin, was diagnosed after a liver biopsy, and the hepatitis and the spiders cleared up after corticosteroid therapy. It is suggested that spiders may form in the blushing areas due to a loss of sphincter tone caused by impaired contractile cells in cutaneous arteriovenous shunts.