Primary biliary cirrhosis--a revised clinical spectrum
Abstract
The presentation or method of detection of 93 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) from Northern England is reported. Almost half (45/93) the patients had no symptoms of liver disease when PBC was diagnosed; in many of them serum antimitochondrial activity (AMA) was detected during immunological screening for other diseases. 13 patients with normal liver function tests had symptomless PBC. Liver histology in 6 of these was diagnostic for PBC, and 7 had histology suggestive of PBC; all had a positive AMA titre greater than or equal to 1/40. The mortality of the symptom-free AMA-positive patients over a mean follow-up of 4-5 years did not differ from that of the general population. Only 1 out of 45 initially symptom-free patients died in the follow-up period (8 months-12 years). 37 patients had disorders which may be associated with PBC--including 16 with thyroid disease, 9 with rheumatoid arthritis, and 5 with mixed connective tissue disease. It is suggest that, as with autoimmune thyroid disease, overt organ damage never develops in many patients with symptomless PBC.
References
Citations
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Autoimmune Thyroiditis
Autoimmune thyroiditis is an inflammatory disease of thyroid gland due to autoimmune responses leading to lymphocytic infiltration of the gland. It is characterized by the presence of circulating thyroid antigen-specific T-cells and thyroid autoantibodies. Discover the latest research on autoimmune thyroiditis here.