Elisabeth M G de Vries, Joanne Verheij, Stefan G Hubscher, Mariska M R Leeflang, Kirsten Boonstra, Ulrich Beuers, Cyriel Y Ponsioen
BACKGROUND: Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic cholestatic liver disease. At present there is no appropriate histologic scoring system available for PSC, evaluating both degree of necroinflammatory activity (grade) and fibrosis (stage). Aim of this study was to assess if three scoring systems, commonly used in different liver diseases could be applied for grading and/or staging of PSC.
METHODS: Sixty-four PSC patients from a Dutch cohort, who underwent diagnostic liver biopsy, were included. Staging was scored using Ishak, Nakanuma, and Ludwig systems. Grading was scored using Ishak and Nakanuma systems. Three measures of outcome were defined; transplant-free survival, time to liver transplantation (LTx) and occurrence of cirrhosis related symptoms (CRS). Association of grade and stage with outcome was estimated using Kaplan Meier-log-rank test, and Cox regression analysis ... Please click here to read the remainder of the abstract.
Journal of Hepatology 2015 June 18