Gatselis NK, Zachou K, Koukoulis GK, Dalekos GN. Autoimmune hepatitis, one disease with many faces: Etiopathogenetic, clinico-laboratory and histological characteristics. World J Gastroenterol 2015; 21(1): 60-83 [PMID: 25574080 DOI: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.60]
Corresponding Author of This Article
George N Dalekos, MD, PhD, Professor, Head, Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Biopolis, 41110 Larissa, Greece. georgedalekos@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2015; 21(1): 60-83 Published online Jan 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i1.60
Autoimmune hepatitis, one disease with many faces: Etiopathogenetic, clinico-laboratory and histological characteristics
Nikolaos K Gatselis, Kalliopi Zachou, George K Koukoulis, George N Dalekos
Nikolaos K Gatselis, Kalliopi Zachou, George N Dalekos, Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41110 Larissa, Greece
George K Koukoulis, Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, 41110 Larissa, Greece
Author contributions: Gatselis NK, Zachou K, Koukoulis GK and Dalekos GN had the original idea and designed the chapters of the review; Gatselis NK along with Zachou K collected and analyzed the data and wrote several parts of the first draft; Koukoulis GK wrote the histology section and provided the figures; Koukoulis GK and Dalekos GN wrote the final version of the review; all the authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: George N Dalekos, MD, PhD, Professor, Head, Department of Medicine and Research Laboratory of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Thessaly, Biopolis, 41110 Larissa, Greece. georgedalekos@gmail.com
Telephone: +30-241-3502285 Fax: +30-241-3501557
Received: August 14, 2014 Peer-review started: August 14, 2014 First decision: September 15, 2014 Revised: October 30, 2014 Accepted: November 18, 2014 Article in press: November 19, 2014 Published online: January 7, 2015 Processing time: 146 Days and 9.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic liver disease of unknown etiology. In this in-depth review we summarize the substantial progress on etiopathogenesis, clinical, serological and histological phenotypes of AIH. AIH has a global distribution affecting any age, both sexes and all ethnic groups. Clinical manifestations vary from asymptomatic to severe hepatitis. Polyclononal hypergammaglobulinemia is characteristic in most cases, while histology and autoantibodies detection are still the hallmark for timely diagnosis. Laboratory personnel, hepato-pathologists and clinicians need to become more familiar with disease expressions and the interpretation of liver histology and autoimmune serology to derive maximum benefit for the patient.
