| Theme |
Liver and Immunity |
| Title |
Diagnosis of Autoimmune Hepatitis |
| Author |
Hiroshi Onoda |
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Yushi Kuniyasu |
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| Author |
Mikio Zeniya |
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, The Jikei University School of Medicine |
| [ Summary ] |
Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic liver disease in which autoimmune mechanism plays an important role in the injury of hepatocytes. Since there is no specific test available for all the patients, AIH is generally diagnosed by excluding other similar chronic liver diseases. In diagnosing AIH, Scoring system by the international AIH group has been used frequently for past decades. Recently simplified diagnostic criteria and scoring system was shown by the group (specificity 99 %, sensitivity 81 % for definite AIH). At the new system, the number and factor of criteria is reduced/simplified and it came out to be easier to apply under the clinical settings. Using the diagnostic scoring systems, the typical AIH are defined without difficulty while there are some problems to diagnose atypical ones. As the number of patients defined to be AIH is increasing, the variety of clinical symptoms and some new concepts of diseases which require the discrimination are complicating the situation. Therefore general view point of clinical features without persisting to the scoring systems is required in diagnosing AIH. |