No abstract

This guideline has been approved by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) and represents the position of the Association. 1. Preamble Clinical practice guidelines are defined as ''systematically developed statements to assist practitioner and patient decisions about appropriate heath care for specific clinical circumstances.'' 1 (All references are available in the Supporting Information.) These guidelines on autoimmune hepatitis provide a data-supported approach to the diagnosis and management of this disease. They are based on the following: (1) formal review and analysis of the recently-published world literature on the topic [Medline search]; (2) American College of Physicians Manual for Assessing Health Practices and Designing Practice Guidelines; 2 (3) guideline policies, including the AASLD Policy on the Development and Use of Practice Guidelines and the American Gastroenterological Association Policy Statement on Guidelines; 3 and (4) the experience of the authors in the specified topic. These recommendations, intended for use by physicians, suggest preferred approaches to the diagnostic, therapeutic and preventive aspects of care. They are intended to be flexible, in contrast to standards of care, which are inflexible policies to be followed in every case. Specific recommendations are based on relevant published information. To more fully characterize the quality of evidence supporting the recommendations, the Practice Guidelines Committee of the AASLD requires a class (reflecting benefit versus risk) and level (assessing strength or certainty) of evidence to be assigned and reported with each recommendation. 4 The grading system applied to the recommendations has been adapted from the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association Practice Guidelines, and it is given below (Table 1).

Diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) may be challenging. However, early diagnosis is important because immunosuppression is life-saving. Diagnostic criteria of the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group (IAIHG) were complex and purely meant for scientific purposes. This study of the IAIHG aims to define simplified diagnostic criteria for routine clinical practice. Candidate criteria included sex, age, autoantibodies, immunoglobulins, absence of viral hepatitis, and histology. The training set included 250 AIH patients and 193 controls from 11 centers worldwide. Scores were built from variables showing predictive ability in univariate analysis. Diagnostic value of each score was assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The best score was validated using data of an additional 109 AIH patients and 284 controls. This score included autoantibodies, immunoglobulin G, histology, and exclusion of viral hepatitis. The area under the curve for prediction of AIH was 0.946 in the training set and 0.91 in the validation set. Based on the ROC curves, two cutoff points were chosen. The score was found to have 88% sensitivity and 97% specificity (cutoff >6) and 81% sensitivity and 99% specificity (cutoff >7) in the validation set. Conclusion: A reliable diagnosis of AIH can be made using a very simple diagnostic score. We propose the diagnosis of probable AIH at a cutoff point greater than 6 points and definite AIH 7 points or higher. (HEPATOLOGY 2008;48:169-176.)

US children, 9%-12% (14-16) UK children, 38% (13) Age at presentation Peripubertal and adults Usually under 14 years (153) Mode of presentation Chronic symptoms common Acute onset (~40%) Ascites or GI bleeding rare Acute liver failure possible (555,556) Asymptomatic in 25%-34% Relapse frequent (108) Acute in 25%-75% Acute severe in 2%-6% Laboratory features Hypergammaglobulinemia IgA levels may be reduced (153) Autoantibodies ANA Anti-LKM1 SMA, anti-actin [Anti-LC1, Anti-LKM3] SLA Concurrent immune diseases Autoimmune thyroiditis Autoimmune thyroiditis Rheumatic diseases Diabetes mellitus IBD Vitiligo Autoimmune overlap with PSC (ASC in children) Common in children Rare Atypical pANCA-positive Atypical pANCA-negative Overlap with PBC Seen in adults (not children) Not reported Cirrhosis at presentation Adults, 28%-33% (especially elderly) Rare Children, ≤33% Remission after drug withdrawal Possible Rare, usually need long-term immunosuppression Abbreviations: GI, gastrointestinal; IgA, serum immunoglobulin A. *Removed from marketplace. Abbreviation: anti-PD-L1, antibody to programmed death protein ligand 1. taBle 6. Features of Drug-Induced aIH-like Injury and aIH Clinical Features Drug Induced AIH-Like Injury AIH Gender Mainly women (187) Female predominance, but men also affected (2,384,467) Acute onset Majority (>60%) (231) <20% (2,136) Hypersensitivity (fever, rash, eosinophilia) Up to 30% (231,232,613) Unusual (2,384,467) Temporal relationship with drug Positive (231-234) Negative (2,56,188) HLA DRB1*03:01 or DRB1*04:01 association None (236) Common (29) Concurrent autoimmune diseases Unusual (187) Present in 14%-44% (129,149-152) Cirrhosis at presentation Rare (187) 28%-33% (9,104-107) Management Stop offending drug ± glucocorticoids (187,231,232) Glucocorticoids with AZA (2,384,467) Relapse after drug withdrawal Rare (187) 60%-87% (243,244) Progression to cirrhosis Rare (187) 7%-40% (105) Survival without transplantation 90%-100% (187,232) 10-year survival, 89%-91% (105,451

The Banff Working Group on Liver Allograft Pathology reviewed and discussed literature evidence regarding antibody-mediated liver allograft rejection at the 11th (Paris, France, June 5-10, 2011), 12th (Comandatuba, Brazil, August 19-23, 2013), and 13th (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, October 5-10, 2015) meetings of the Banff Conference on Allograft Pathology. Discussion continued online. The primary goal was to introduce guidelines and consensus criteria for the diagnosis of liver allograft antibody-mediated rejection and provide a comprehensive update of all Banff Schema recommendations. Included are new recommendations for complement component 4d tissue staining and interpretation, staging liver allograft fibrosis, and findings related to immunosuppression minimization. In an effort to create a single reference document, previous unchanged criteria are also included.