Diagnostic approach to autoimmune hepatitis

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic inflammatory liver disease which, if left without treatment, can evolve into cirrhosis and possibly liver failure. The diagnosis of AIH is hampered by the lack of specific and reliable markers of the disease and a number of clinical, biochemical, immunological, histological and genetic factors should be considered to reach a confident diagnosis

Areas covered: Clinical expression of AIH, histological features, serological and genetic profiles, differential diagnosis, overlap with other autoimmune liver diseases, assessed on the basis of personal experience and review of published literature in the last 10 years through a systematic Medline search (keywords: autoimmune hepatitis, diagnosis)

Expert commentary: Notwithstanding numerous efforts to identify simple and reliable markers of the disease, the diagnosis of AIH is still based on the combination of histological, immunological and biochemical features and often can represent a real challenge for the hepatologist.

KEYWORDS:

• Autoimmune hepatitis
• autoantibodies
• antinuclear antibodies
• anti smooth muscle antibodies
• pattern
• liver kidney microsome type 1
• interface hepatitis
• hypergammaglobulinemia

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.

Additional information

Funding

No funding to declare