Validation of simplified diagnostic criteria for autoimmune hepatitis in Italian patients

✍ Scribed by Paolo Muratori; Alessandro Granito; Georgios Pappas; Luigi Muratori

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 60 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0270-9139
• DOI: 10.1002/hep.22825

✦ Synopsis

concentration less than 1000 g/L. 2 This is particularly unusual and in contrast to data obtained in the French, Canadian, 3 and Australian populations. 1 In our article, we highlighted the remarkable consistency between these three populations with respect to the frequency with which combinations of different laboratory variables occurred in patients with cirrhosis due to C282Y hemochromatosis. For example, the percentages of the cohorts with serum ferritin Ͼ 1000 g/L and cirrhosis in Canadian, French, and Australian C282Y populations were 36%, 39.7%, and 38.5%, respectively. The three centers from which these data were reported are major referral institutions for hemochromatosis, and this could introduce referral bias into the observations. It would be of particular interest to determine whether similar results are reproduced in studies of patients reported from centers in which referral bias may not be an operative factor. Whether there are significant geographical and/or ethnic factors that alter the role of laboratory predictors of cirrhosis is unknown. We would encourage Dr. Castiella and his colleagues to extend their studies to determine if there are differences between populations with respect to the clinical utility of markers of fibrosis in C282Y hemochromatosis and particularly whether measurements of the serum hyaluronic acid concentration are also reliable for predicting cirrhosis in their population.