Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Nov 28, 2016; 8(33): 1419-1441
Published online Nov 28, 2016. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v8.i33.1419
Recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of primary biliary cholangitis
Ying-Qiu Huang
Ying-Qiu Huang, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Benxi Steel and Iron (Group) Co., LTD, Fifth Clinical College of China Medical University, Benxi 117000, Liaoning Province, China
Author contributions: Huang YQ independently wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interest.
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: Ying-Qiu Huang, Professor of Medicine, Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, General Hospital of Benxi Steel and Iron (Group) Co., LTD, Fifth Clinical College of China Medical University, 29 Renmin Road, Pingshan District, Benxi 117000, Liaoning Province, China. huangyingqiu_bx@126.com
Telephone: +86-24-42215137 Fax: +86-24-42215087
Received: March 31, 2016
Peer-review started: April 5, 2016
First decision: June 12, 2016
Revised: July 26, 2016
Accepted: August 27, 2016
Article in press: August 29, 2016
Published online: November 28, 2016
Processing time: 239 Days and 21.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), previously called primary biliary cirrhosis, is an autoimmune non-suppurative inflammatory disease of the bile duct that is usually complicated by intrahepatic cholestasis and intrahepatic bile ductule damage, and eventually leads to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. This review will focus on the clinical, serological and histopathological characteristics of PBC, as well as the advances in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.