Quality Of Life in Patients With Primary Biliary Cholangitis: A Single Center Experience in Serbia

Digestive Diseases
Tamara MilovanovicTomica Milosavljević

Abstract

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic autoimmune disease, predominantly affecting middle-aged women that may progress to end-stage liver disease. We aimed to assess quality of life (QoL) in patients with PBC given that social, economic, and geographical factor also influence QoL. This study included patients with diagnosed PBC according to the EASL guidelines, who were treated for at least 6 months in order to allow adequate time for the initial burden of symptoms to subside. We used the PBC-40 questionnaire validated in the Serbian language. The mean total PBC-40 score was 89.4 ± 29.3. The overall frequency of moderate and severe involvement in each domain was: 84.9% (n=107) in "Symptoms," 29.3% (n=36) in "Itch," 76.4% (n=97) in "Fatigue," 58.1% (n=72) in "Cognitive," 77.2% (n=98) in "Social," and 70.9% (n=90) in "Emotional." There was a statistically significant negative correlation of disease duration and albumin score with the "Emotional" domain score. Furthermore this domain showed a significant positive correlation with the Mayo score. The present study demonstrates that patients with PBC have significant impairment in QoL with fatigue being the most prevalent symptom. The "Social" and "Emotional" dom...Continue Reading

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