Two immunofluorescence procedures to evaluate antinuclear antibodies were compared in a series of 221 patients with chronic liver disorders of various aetiologies. The use of HEp-2 cells allowed us to discriminate with more confidence between the homogeneous and speckled patterns, to show the presence of associated patterns in the same serum, and, above all, to identify two specificities, unrec...

Investigations were carried out in 122 patients in order to identify features of Sjögren's syndrome (keratoconjunctivitis sicca and xerostomia). There were 78 patients with autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis 21, scleroderma 16, sicca syndrome 16, primary biliary cirrhosis 14, and other autoimmune disorders 11), 11 patients with chronic liver disease other than primary biliary cirrhosis, ...

Studies were carried out to test the hypothesis that the GSTM1 null phenotype at the mu (mu) class glutathione S-transferase 1 locus is associated with an increased predisposition to primary biliary cirrhosis. Starch gel electrophoresis was used to compare the prevalence of GSTM1 null phenotype 0 in patients with end stage primary biliary cirrhosis and a group of controls without evidence of li...

The perception of itch in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is not characterized. Patients with primary biliary cirrhosis who were members of the PBCers Organization were invited to participate in an on-line survey addressing certain characteristics of their itch. Patients used their own words in the questions that asked for descriptions. A total of 238 subjects responded to the survey; of these,...

A human betaretrovirus resembling mouse mammary tumor virus has been characterized in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. The agent triggers a disease-specific phenotype in vitro with aberrant cell-surface expression of mitochondrial antigens. The presentation of a usually sequestered self-protein is thought to lead to the loss of tolerance and the production of anti-mitochondrial antibodi...

BACKGROUND An increased prevalence of coeliac disease in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis has been recently reported. However, in other studies the association has not been confirmed. There have been no formal attempts to systematically evaluate patients with autoimmune cholangitis for coeliac disease. METHODS Sera from 62 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, 17 with autoimmune cho...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic immune-mediated cholestatic liver disease of unknown aetiology which affects mostly women in middle age. Familial PBC is when PBC affects more than one member of the same family, and data suggest that first-degree relatives of PBC patients have an increased risk of developing the disease. Most often, these familial clusters involve mother-daughter pa...

The automimmune liver disease primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is characterised by serum autoantibodies directed at mitochondrial and nuclear antigens (seen in most patients and a subset of patients, respectively). The antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) characteristic of PBC are directed at members of the 2-oxoacid dehydrogenase components of multienzyme complexes; in particular, the E2 and E3 b...

The present study sought to test the efficacy of a brief theory-based intervention to promote regular consumption of breakfast, and to expand previous results suggesting that the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) can be meaningfully applied to breakfast consumption. A four-armed randomised controlled trial was conducted. Participants (n=349) were allocated to receive either a (1) positively fra...

A study was conducted to explore (a) the dimensional structure of perceived behavioural control (PBC), (b) the conceptual basis of perceived difficulty items, and (c) how PBC components and instrumental and affective attitudes, respectively, relate to intention and behaviour. The material stemmed from a two-wave study of Norwegian graduate students (N = 227 for the prediction of intention and N...