Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, including details on myalgic encephalomyelitis (me), diagnosis, gradual and sudden onset.

Pathogenesis of Primary Biliary Cirrhosis.

Jones DE

University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom.

Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease which affects up to 1 in 700 women in Western populations (female to male ratio is approximately 10 to 1 with the disease typically presenting over the age of 40). PBC is characterised histologically by damage to, and eventual loss of, the biliary epithelial cells (BEC) lining small intra-hepatic bile ducts. BEC loss is typically accompanied by a significant portal tract inflammatory infiltrate which is mixed in phenotype (T-cells (CD4+ and CD8+ with the latter predominating in the peri-ductal areas), B-cells, macrophages, eosinophils and natural killer (NK) cells). Early descriptions of PBC emphasised the predominant role played by progression of bile duct loss, accompanied by increasing portal tract and linking fibrosis leading to biliary cirrhosis, in the clinical expression of PBC, and described an aggressive and uniformly fatal condition. Increased awareness of the condition and, in particular, availability of diagnostic tools such as serology, has led to broader and earlier diagnosis. This has had the effect that we now recognise PBC far more frequently than was previously the case, and typically do so at an earlier stage in the disease process. Broadening of the diagnostic base has, in addition, led us to appreciate that there is a significant subgroup within the PBC population who have a low risk of disease progression and who are unlikely to develop end-stage liver disease during a normal lifetime (but who remain at risk of developing the often life-altering symptoms of the disease such as fatigue which are seemingly unrelated to the severity of underlying liver disease). The factors which determine individual risk of disease progression remain unclear precluding us, at present, from targeting disease modifying therapies at ï¿(1/2)high riskï¿(1/2) patients.

Published 20 July 2007 in Gut.
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