A Case of Autoimmune Hepatitis

Jin Ah Park, Il Hwan Moon, Doe Young Kim

Copyright ⓒ 1998. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Sep 30, 1998

Abstract

Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare cause of chronic hepatitis in Korea. The cause of autoimmune hepatitis is unknown. A loss of tolerance to autologous liver tissue is regarded as the primary pathogenetic mechanism. The clinical course of this disease is slowly progressive. The clinical picture of autoimmune hepatitis is also often associated with extrapehatic disease, many of which have a presumed autoimmune origin. Untreated patients have a poor prognosis, however immunosuppressive treatment prolongs survival.

In this report, we describe a 59-year-old female who had a history of hemolytic anemia. She was admitted to the hospital due to the jaundice, her liver function test had been known to be abnormal. Laboratory test showed hypergammaglobulinemia and autoantibody.

Keywords: Autoimmune hepatitis