Analysis On The Clinical And Pathological Characters Of IgG4-associated AIH

Objective：To determine the prevalence and the clinical, serological, andhistological characters of IgG4-associated AIH.Methods：According to the liver biopsy, the clinical features andlaboratory findings of14patients with AIH,12patients with AIH-PBCoverlap syndrome,9patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and9chronic hepatitis patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection wereretrospectively analyzed in our hospital among2007and2012. Liverbiopsy tissues from these patients were stained by hematoxylin-eosin toevaluate the histological features, and by immunohistochemistry to markthe IgG4positive plasma cells.Results：Three of the14liver specimens from patients with AIH and oneof the12liver specimens from patients with AIH-PBC overlap syndromeshowed positive staining for IgG4, whereas none of the samples frompatients with PBC and patients with HBV hepatitis was positive. TheIgG4-associated AIH patients had signifcantly higher totalserum IgGlevels and AIH scores as compared with the IgG4non-associated patients. Conclusions：IgG4-associated AIH was found in over21.4%of Chinesepatients with type1AIH in our cohort. AIH may be classifed into eitheran IgG4-associated type or an IgG4non-associated type, which is usefulfor guiding the clinical practice.