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Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND /AIM: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a common cause of end-stage liver disease worldwide. It is a disease prevalent in children and adults, with female predominance and variable clinical presentations. AIH has favorable responses to steroids and immunomodulators. Diagnosis of AIH is based...

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Autores principales: Fallatah, Hind I., Akbar, Hisham O., Qari, Yousif A.
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Medknow Publications 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016513/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20339178
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1319-3767.61235
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author Fallatah, Hind I.
Akbar, Hisham O.
Qari, Yousif A.
author_facet Fallatah, Hind I.
Akbar, Hisham O.
Qari, Yousif A.
author_sort Fallatah, Hind I.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND /AIM: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a common cause of end-stage liver disease worldwide. It is a disease prevalent in children and adults, with female predominance and variable clinical presentations. AIH has favorable responses to steroids and immunomodulators. Diagnosis of AIH is based on clinical and laboratory criteria, as suggested by the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group. Data on the disease pattern of AIH from the Middle East countries is scarce. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective analysis, we studied clinical and laboratory features, immunological data, radiological findings, liver biopsy findings and response to therapy in patients with AIH from the hepatology clinics of King Abdul Aziz, University Hospital, Jeddah, from 1994 to 2008. RESULTS: We diagnosed 41 patients with AIH, and 33 were included in the analysis. The mean age was 32.3 years, with female predominance of 75.7%. De-compensated cirrhosis at presentation was found in 45.5% of the patients. Acute hepatitis was associated with significantly higher levels of the serum ALT and bilirubin (P=0.001 and P=0.03, respectively). All our patients had type 1 AIH. Treatment with prednisolone and azathioprine resulted in complete or partial remission in majority of the patients (54.8%). However, patients with advanced disease showed a poorer response to treatment (P=0.016). Six patients with poor compliance had relapse of AIH. Two patients had a flare of the disease during pregnancy, and they responded well with prednisolone. The longest follow-up was 14 years and the shortest was 2 months. Four patients died from liver disease. CONCLUSION: AIH patients in Saudi Arabia are likely to present with advanced disease at a young age and would have a poorer response to therapy as compared with patients in other countries worldwide.
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spelling pubmed-30165132011-01-13 Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia Fallatah, Hind I. Akbar, Hisham O. Qari, Yousif A. Saudi J Gastroenterol Original Article BACKGROUND /AIM: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a common cause of end-stage liver disease worldwide. It is a disease prevalent in children and adults, with female predominance and variable clinical presentations. AIH has favorable responses to steroids and immunomodulators. Diagnosis of AIH is based on clinical and laboratory criteria, as suggested by the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group. Data on the disease pattern of AIH from the Middle East countries is scarce. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective analysis, we studied clinical and laboratory features, immunological data, radiological findings, liver biopsy findings and response to therapy in patients with AIH from the hepatology clinics of King Abdul Aziz, University Hospital, Jeddah, from 1994 to 2008. RESULTS: We diagnosed 41 patients with AIH, and 33 were included in the analysis. The mean age was 32.3 years, with female predominance of 75.7%. De-compensated cirrhosis at presentation was found in 45.5% of the patients. Acute hepatitis was associated with significantly higher levels of the serum ALT and bilirubin (P=0.001 and P=0.03, respectively). All our patients had type 1 AIH. Treatment with prednisolone and azathioprine resulted in complete or partial remission in majority of the patients (54.8%). However, patients with advanced disease showed a poorer response to treatment (P=0.016). Six patients with poor compliance had relapse of AIH. Two patients had a flare of the disease during pregnancy, and they responded well with prednisolone. The longest follow-up was 14 years and the shortest was 2 months. Four patients died from liver disease. CONCLUSION: AIH patients in Saudi Arabia are likely to present with advanced disease at a young age and would have a poorer response to therapy as compared with patients in other countries worldwide. Medknow Publications 2010-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3016513/ /pubmed/20339178 http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1319-3767.61235 Text en © Saudi Journal of Gastroenterology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Fallatah, Hind I.
Akbar, Hisham O.
Qari, Yousif A.
Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title_full Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title_fullStr Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title_full_unstemmed Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title_short Autoimmune Hepatitis: Single-center Experience of Clinical Presentation, Response to Treatment and Prognosis in Saudi Arabia
title_sort autoimmune hepatitis: single-center experience of clinical presentation, response to treatment and prognosis in saudi arabia
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3016513/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20339178
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/1319-3767.61235
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