Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a rare disease, characterized by female predominance, hypergammaglobulinemia, autoantibodies, association with HLA DR3 and HLA DR4 and a good response to immunosuppression. Different subtypes of AIH may be distinguished, based on differences in the autoantibody patterns. AIH type 1 is characterized by anti-nuclear (ANA) and/or anti-smooth muscular (SMA) autoantibod...

Antinuclear antibodies with the homogeneous pattern (ANA-H) and smooth muscle antibodies with antiactin specificity (SMA-AA) are regarded as the serum markers of type-1 autoimmune chronic hepatitis. Their diagnostic relevance, however, has been questioned recently after the detection of signs of hepatitis C virus infection in autoimmune chronic hepatitis patients. To further evaluate this point...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The frequency of Type 1 diabetes (T1D)-related autoantibodies was determined in children with autoimmune hepatitis. However, the incidence of autoimmune hepatitis related autoantibodies in children with T1D has been poorly investigated. The aim of the present cross sectional prospective study was to determine the occurrence of autoimmune hepatitis-related autoantibodie...

Prednisone or prednisolone are the mainstay drug treatments for autoimmune hepatitis in children. However, long-term use of corticosteroid is associated with the risk of steroid-induced toxicities, and this situation requires newer immuno-suppressive agents for the treatment of autoimmune hepatitis, especially in growing children. An 11-yr-old Korean girl with type-1 autoimmune hepatitis discon...