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Clinical pathology and HLA-DRB1 allele associations of primary biliary cirrhosis and autoimmune cholangitis in Han Chinese
Song Chen, Gang-Jian Zhu, Guo-Hong Deng, Yan Zhu
Song Chen, Guo-Hong Deng, Yan Zhu, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Southwest Hospital, the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China
Gang-Jian Zhu, Institute of Infectious Diseases, the Second Hospital of Jingzhou City, Jingzhou 434000, Hubei Province, China
Correspondence to: Song Chen, Institute of Infectious Diseases, Southwest Hospital, the Third Military Medical University, Chongqing 400038, China. cs196@medmail.com.cn
Received: August 29, 2005 Revised: September 1, 2005 Accepted: September 6, 2005 Published online: October 28, 2005
AIM: To analyze the clinical and pathological characte-ristics of both primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and auto- immune cholangitis (AIC), and to explore their associ-ations with HLA-DRB1 alleles in Han Chinese.
METHODS: Of 94 patients diagnosed with PBC, 12 cases of AIC and 9 cases of overlap syndrome of PBC and au-toimmune hepatitis (AIH) were identified. The clinical manifestations and pathological changes exhibited in the liver biopsies from AIC, pure PBC and overlap syndrome were comparatively analyzed. The frequencies of HLA-DRB1 alleles were determined in AIC and PBC patients and healthy controls by polymerase chain reaction with sequence specific primers.
RESULTS: The age, sex, clinical manifestations, bio-chemical markers and histological findings were not significantly different between the AIC and pure PBC patients. However, the score for AIH and the positive rate of serum antinuclear antibody and/or smooth muscle antibody were higher in patients (8.8±0.9 vs 4.6±0.8, t = 17.45, P <0.01; 84.6% vs 22.2%, χ2 = 17.003 9, P <0.01). The serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST) and immunoglobulin G in AIC patients were markedly lower than those in the overlap syndrome patients (t = 3.44, P <0.01; t = 2.83, P <0.01; t = 2.18, P <0.05). Higher allele frequency of HLA-DRB1*08 was found in pure PBC patients, versus controls (9.7% vs 3.3%, RR = 4.42, P <0.05), and the allele frequency of HLA-DRB1*08 tended to increase in pure PBC patients.
CONCLUSION: Except the pretreatment score for AIH and the types of immunoserological marker, there were no differences between AIC and pure PBC. AIC may only be a variant pattern of PBC, rather than a separate disease.
Citation: Chen S, Zhu GJ, Deng GH, Zhu Y. Clinical pathology and HLA-DRB1 allele associations of primary biliary cirrhosis and autoimmune cholangitis in Han Chinese. Shijie Huaren Xiaohua Zazhi 2005; 13(20): 2450-2454
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