Usefulness of Corticosteroids for the Treatment of Severe and Fulminant Forms of Autoimmune Hepatitis

作者：Philippe Ichaı̈, Jean‐Charles Duclos‐Vallée, Catherine Guettier, Sonia Ben Hamida, Theresa Antonini, Valerie Delvart, Faouzi Saliba, Daniel Azoulay, Denis Castaing, Didier Samuel · 发表于：Liver Transplantation · 年份：2007 · DOI：10.1002/lt.21036 · 被引用次数：249 · 研究领域：Liver Diseases and Immunity、Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Pediatric Hepatobiliary Diseases and Treatments

Immunosuppressive therapy, and particularly corticosteroids with or without azathioprine, can achieve a remission in more than 80% of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). By contrast, the usefulness of corticosteroid therapy in severe forms of AIH remains a subject of debate. Between 1986 and 2005, 16 patients (14 females, 2 males; mean age: 36.6 +/- 13.1 yr) presenting with acute, severe, or fulminant disease due to type 1 AIH (n = 13) or type 2 AIH (n = 3) were admitted to our liver intensive care unit. At admission, 10 of 16 (62.5%) patients presented with encephalopathy. Median international normalized ratio (INR), bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and creatinine values were 5.36 (range, 1.7-12.2), 425 micromol/L (range, 278-850), 678 IU/L (range, 60-2867), and 72 muicrool/L (range, 52-133), respectively. A total of 12 patients received corticosteroid therapy: 8 had started in the referring center a median of 2.5 days (range, 1-89) previously, and this therapy was initiated in 4 patients at their admission to our unit (median: 2 days; range: 0-5). Four patients were not treated because of a rapid deterioration in their AIH. Before treatment, 4 of 12 patients had been suffering from encephalopathy. The median duration of corticosteroid therapy was 7 days (range: 2-135). Of 16 patients, 13 underwent liver transplantation (LT) (81%), at which time all were encephalopathic. Median values for INR, total bilirubin, and ALT were 7.2 (range: 3.3-15.9), 400 micromol/...