The hepatitic/cholestatic "overlap" syndrome: an Italian experience

Patients with hepatitic and cholestatic autoimmune liver disease ("overlap syndrome") represent a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge.

To evaluate the prevalence of the "hepatitic/cholestatic overlap" in a large series of consecutive patients with cholestatic autoimmune liver disease.

We re-evaluated the diagnosis of 235 patients with autoimmune liver disease, including 70 with type 1 autoimmune hepatitis (AIH), 142 with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), and 23 with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), using the revised International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group (IAIHG) scoring system. Anti-mitochondrial, anti-nuclear, anti-smooth muscle, anti-liver kidney microsomal type 1, anti-liver cytosol type 1, perinuclear anti-neutrophil nuclear and anti-soluble liver antigen antibodies were evaluated in each patient.

Ten patients (3 with a previous diagnosis of PBC and 7 of PSC) scored as "probable" or "definite" AIH. These patients did not have a specific autoantibody profile.

Among patients with PBC, the occurrence of a PBC/AIH overlapping syndrome is rare (2.1%), whereas among patients with PSC an overlap between PSC and AIH is frequent (30.4%). Whether patients with the hepatitic/cholestatic overlap syndrome would benefit from a combination therapy with immunosuppression and ursodeoxycholic acid remains to be established.