To investigate the basis of subclinical alveolitis in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, 10 primary biliary cirrhosis patients were studied by bronchoalveolar lavage. Both bronchoalveolar lavage lymphoid and non-lymphoid cell populations were analysed using immunocytological methods to determine their proportions and phenotypic features in an attempt to gain information as to possible imm...

Twenty-five patients with primary biliary cirrhosis undergoing portal decompression have been followed up for a mean of 51 months. Five patients with decompensated cirrhosis died postoperatively. Overall five year survival of 66% is comparable with that for other forms of cirrhosis but none of the long-term survivors, including three patients with a precirrhotic stage of primary biliary cirrhos...

AIM Lymphocytic infiltration in the portal triads usually conceals the detection--in haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections--of bile ducts in two liver diseases: chronic hepatitis and primary biliary cirrhosis. The aim was to assess the number and the characteristics of the bile ducts in those diseases with the aid of an antibody to cytokeratin 7 (CK7). METHODS Consecutive sections fro...

To determine whether portal lymphadenopathy in primary biliary cirrhosis is caused by deposition of lipofuscin pigment in sinus histiocytes and to compare primary biliary cirrhosis with other liver diseases a retrospective study on a consecutive series of 169 livers obtained at transplantation was carried out. There were grouped into eight diagnostic categories: primary biliary cirrhosis (n = 5...

we describe the case of a male patient suffering from long-lasting crohn’s disease of the small bowel who developed thyroiditis hassimoto, raynaud’s phenomenon, and primary biliary cirrhosis, during the course of the underlying bowel disease. it is not clear whether these co-morbidities appeared coincidentally, or because they share some common immunopathogenetic mechanisms. in this patient, cr...

Primary biliary cirrhosis is a chronic liver disease characterised by intrahepatic bile-duct destruction, cholestasis, and, in some cases, cirrhosis. Evidence supporting the autoimmune nature of this disorder includes the appearance of highly specific antimitochondrial antibodies (AMAs) and autoreactive T cells. Concordance rates in monozygotic twins, familial prevalence, and genetic associatio...

Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) is the result of long-standing damage to intra-hepatic biliary channels as a result of immune mechanisms leading to cholestasis and its associated complications. It can end up in chronic liver disease or cirrhosis. It usually manifests as pruritis that then proceeds to fatigue, jaundice and other features of chronic liver disease. It is detected by raised serolog...