BACKGROUND/AIMS Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) patients experience significant impairment to quality of life (QOL). Studies to date examining relative contributions of different symptoms to QOL impairment in PBC, and biological associations have been limited by the unavailability of appropriate disease specific symptom quantification modalities. METHODS We applied the PBC-40, a recently deve...

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), previously known as primary biliary "cirrhosis", is a rare autoimmune liver disease characterized by the hallmark autoantibodies to mitochondrial antigens and immune-mediated destruction of small bile duct epithelial cells leading to cholestasis and cirrhosis. Surprisingly, while immune modulators have not been effective in the treatment of PBC, supplementatio...

BACKGROUND AND AIM Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic disease of autoimmune origin and has a genetic component. Although it has been reported that the prevalence of the HLA-DRB1*08 allele is high in various populations, the prevalence of HLA alleles in Mexican PBC patients has not been described. The aim of this study was to quantify the prevalence of HLA-B/-DR alleles in ...

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is histologically characterized by chronic nonsuppurative destructive cholangitis (CNSDC) associated with destruction of small bile ducts. The pathogenesis of PBC, predominance of female, or the reason why biliary duct is selectively involved, however, remains unknown. Infectious or non-infectious noxious insults such as xenobiotic chemicals may precipitate in th...

BACKGROUND Current methods of female surgical sterilisation require incisional surgery, general anaesthesia and a prolonged recovery time. We studied the safety and effectiveness of Essure pbc, a minimally invasive, transcervically placed micro-insert that occludes the Fallopian tubes, resulting in permanent female contraception. Device under study: The Essure pbc implant is a dynamically expan...

Correspondence to: Professor David E J Jones, Liver Research Group, Institute of Cellular Medicine, 4th Floor William Leech Building, The Medical School, Framlington Place, Newcastle-upon-Tyne NE2 4HH, UK; d.e.j.jones@ ncl.ac.uk __________________________ P rimary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease that affects up to one in 700 women in western populations (female to...

Antimitochondrial antibodies (AMA) are the serum hallmark of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). However, AMA-positivity can be found in non-PBC sera when lower dilutions are used, thus raising issues about the specificity and sensitivity of the test. AMA reacts primarily with the lipoylated domains of pyruvate dehydrogenase-E2 (PDC-E2) which is highly conserved across species, including bacteria....

BACKGROUND Polymorphisms of vitamin D receptor (VDR) contribute to the pathogenesis of multiple autoimmune conditions. METHODS We investigated the incidence of VDR polymorphisms (rs1544410-BsmI; rs7975232-ApaI; rs731236-TaqI) in a group of patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC, n = 275) and in healthy controls (n = 376). Additionally, correlations of the VDR polymorphisms with cli...

Background. Acute immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is a common, benign, self-limiting disease in children. Chronic ITP is diagnosed when thorombocytopenia persists beyond 12 months. Older age is associated with increased risk for development of chronic ITP. The main objective of the current study was to examine whether total leukocyte (TLC) and absolute lymphocyte counts (ALC) at diagnosis...

discussion the disappearance of olp might be due to immunosuppressive therapy following liver transplantation. further observations and studies are necessary to clarify the relationship between olp and pbc. case presentation we describe a case of oral lichen planus (olp) accompanied with pbc that resolved following liver transplantation 14 years later. this patient received immunosuppressive dr...