AUTOIMMUNE CHOLANGITIS SUCCESSFULLY TREAT ED BY CORTICOTHERAPY - ONE CASE

Autoimmune cholangitis is a rare cause of chronic liver disease which has recently been described and associates the clinical, biological, a nd histological patterns of primary biliary cirrhosis without serum an ti-mitochondrial antibodies. We report a case of this disease in a 67- year-old female. The patient presented with jaundice and marked biolog ical cholestasis associated with pulmonary fibrosis and salivary and l acrymal sicca syndrome. Serum anti-smooth muscle antibodies were found without anti-mitochondrial antibodies. Corticotherapy resulted in rap id improvement of clinical and hepatic abnormalities, as well as of pu lmonary lesions. The patient was still healthy 18 months later, with l ow dose corticotherapy. This report emphasizes the possible effectiven ess of corticotherapy in autoimmune cholangitis.