AIH patients can do without therapy

TORONTO, Jun 23, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- A Canadian study finds that treatment may not be needed for patients with autoimmune hepatitis who show no symptoms.

The team followed 124 patients diagnosed at Toronto Western Hospital Liver Clinic between 1970 and 2002, including 31 who were asymptomatic. Asymptomatic patients were not given therapy unless their doctors had already started them on it.

Dr. Jordan Feld of the University Health Network at the University of Toronto reports that asymptomatic patients generally responded less well to therapy. Feld said that leaving AIH untreated until patients show symptoms appears to do no harm.

In AIH, a patient's own immune system attacks the liver. In the past, everyone diagnosed with the disorder was treated with immunosuppressive therapy because doctors believed this would prevent cirrhosis, but Feld said that has not been proved.

The study was published in Hepatology, the official journal of the

American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.