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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jess Dyson, Dr Dina Tiniakos, Professor David Jones
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted. Primary biliary cholangitis (formerly known as primary biliary cirrhosis, PBC) is an autoimmune liver disease in which a cycle of immune mediated biliary epithelial cell injury, cholestasis and progressive fibrosis can culminate over time in an end-stage biliary cirrhosis. Both genetic and environmental influences are presumed relevant to disease initiation. PBC is most prevalent in women and those over the age of 50, but a spectrum of disease is recognised in adult patients globally; male sex, younger age at onset (<45) and advanced disease at presentation are baseline predictors of poorer outcome. As the disease is increasingly diagnosed through the combination of cholestatic serum liver tests and the presence of antimitochondrial antibodies, most presenting patients are not cirrhotic and the term cholangitis is more accurate. Disease course is frequently accompanied by symptoms that can be burdensome for patients, and management of patients with PBC must address, in a life-long manner, both disease progression and symptom burden. Licensed therapies include ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) and obeticholic acid (OCA), alongside experimental new and re-purposed agents. Disease management focuses on initiation of UDCA for all patients and risk stratification based on baseline and on-treatment factors, including in particular the response to treatment. Those intolerant of treatment with UDCA or those with high-risk disease as evidenced by UDCA treatment failure (frequently reflected in trial and clinical practice as an alkaline phosphatase >1.67 × upper limit of normal and/or elevated bilirubin) should be considered for second-line therapy, of which OCA is the only currently licensed National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommended agent. Follow-up of patients is life-long and must address treatment of the disease and management of associated symptoms.
Author(s): Hirschfield GM, Dyson JK, Alexander GJM, Chapman MH, Collier J, Hubscher S, Patanwala I, Pereira SP, Thain C, Thorburn D, Tiniakos D, Walmsley M, Webster G, Jones DEJ
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Gut
Year: 2018
Volume: 67
Issue: 9
Pages: 1568-1594
Print publication date: 01/09/2018
Online publication date: 28/03/2018
Acceptance date: 23/01/2018
Date deposited: 09/07/2018
ISSN (print): 0017-5749
ISSN (electronic): 1468-3288
Publisher: BMJ Group
URL: https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2017-315259
DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-315259
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