Primary biliary cirrhosis is an autoimmune chronic liver disease characterized by progressive bile duct destruction eventually leading to cirrhosis, liver failure, and death. The autoimmune pathogenesis is supported by a plethora of experimental and clinical data, such as the presence of autoreactive T cells and serum autoantibodies. The aetiology remains unknown, although evidence suggests a r...

Primary biliary cirrhosis is an autoimmune cholestatic liver disease characterized by humoral and cellular response directed at mitochondrial autoantigens, mainly the E2 component of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. The etiology of PBC, like most polygenic autoimmune diseases, belongs to the "complex" category, including genetic elements and environmental factors. Many environmental factors,...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is an autoimmune chronic cholestatic liver disease, histopathologically charac­ terized by portal inflammation and immune­mediated destruction of the intrahepatic bile ducts within the portal tracts and epithelioid granulomas around damaged bile ducts. The loss of bile ducts leads to decreased bile secretion and the retention of toxic substances within the liver,...

1 Pratter MR, Irwin RS. Usefulness and safety of pharmacological bronchoprovocation challenge in evaluating patients with normal spirometric tests who are suspected of having asthnaa. Chest 1988; 93:898-900 2 Pratter MR. Irwin RS. The clinical value of pharmacological bronchoprovocation challenge. In a recent review ofprimary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), the possible association of this disease wit...

Primary biliary diseases have been associated in several studies with various malignancies. Understanding the risk and optimizing surveillance strategy of these malignancies in this specific subset of patients are an important facet of clinical care. For instance, primary sclerosing cholangitis is associated with an increased risk for cholangiocarcinoma (which is very challenging to diagnose) a...

Fifty years have passed since anti-mitochondrial antibodies were found in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). PBC is an autoimmune hepatic disease in which 85-90% of patient antibodies bind to mitochondrial antigens that include pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDC)-E2 and other members of the oxaloacid dehydrogenase family. In addition, indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) assays utiliz...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is very closely associated with the presence of antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA). Nevertheless, 5 to 10% of patients with typical features of primary biliary cirrhosis do not have detectable AMA. They are referred to as AMA negative PBC. We report a case of PBC who was AMA-negative. The patient was a middle-aged woman seeking help of dermatologist for her compl...

This study evaluated the efficacy of a theory of planned behaviour (TPB) based intervention to increase fruit and vegetable consumption. The extent to which fruit and vegetable consumption and change in intake could be explained by the TPB was also examined. Participants were randomly assigned to two levels of intervention frequency matched for intervention content (low frequency n=92, high fre...

couple of weeks to report on progress. A final thought. If we are prepared to tackle the ‘no sex’ issue head on and spend just a little time with patients exploring the issues, then we’re not just supporting them to get the help they need. We’re also giving them the message that they deserve that help, that their sexuality matters, and that they don’t simply have to accept their current ‘no sex...

Autoimmune phenomena have been recognized in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) for more than 50 years and the specificity of the characteristic responses directed at highly conserved mitochondrial antigens determined in detail over the past 20. Effecter autoreactive immune responses are characterized and potential mechanisms of breakdown of tolerance to self proposed. Elements of the clinical pat...