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Autoimmune hepatitis (AH) is a chronic inflammatory immunodependent disease of the liver. Women are affected more frequently than men. The patients show clinical and morphological signs of chronic hepatitis, extrahepatic manifestations of immune disorders (autoimmune thyroiditis, non-specific ulcerative colitis, vitiligo, diabetes mellitus, etc.), readily respond to glucocorticoid therapy have elevated levels of ALA, gamma-globulins (especially IgG), serum ANA, SMA, LKM or SLA antibodies. Untreated AH promotes rapid development of liver cirrhosis with 90% 10-year lethality. AH is diagnosed by exclusion and is of primary importance for clinical practice. The treatment is based on the use of immunosuppressors as a rule prescribed in addition to steroid therapy. It results in complete remission and normal life expectancy in 80% of the cases.

Current achievements in clinical hepatology according to literature, materials of the congresses and symposia, rich personal medical and research experience are reviewed.

One hundred and twenty patients suffering from food allergy were examined for cellular immunity and allergic reactions according to Gell and Coombs. It was found that food allergy was associated most frequently with immediate allergy characterized by elevated blood IgE level and food antibodies titer in the serum. Less frequent were delayed and immunocomplex reactions occurring in severe and polyvalent allergy. In food allergy the count of T-lymphocytes and T-suppressors is reduced, their activity inhibited. There is a moderate rise in B-lymphocytes and T-helpers levels. The treatment promoted improvement of cellular and humoral immunity, though normal indices got recovered in half the cases only. This fact explains frequent recurrences and dictates the necessity of long-term therapy. Elucidation of the mechanisms underlying food allergy may be helpful in administration of valid pathogenetic treatment.

The authors studied the efficacy of the treatment of 80 patients with primary chronic gastroduodenitis on an ambulatory basis. Use was made of spasmolytics, cholinolytics, antacids, sedative agents together with reflexotherapy, dietetic management and physiotherapy. As a result of the treatment, positive changes were recorded in the clinical, functional (intragastric pH-metry with the sodium carbonate test), endoscopic, histomorphologic, morphometric and immunologic characteristics. The changes in the characteristics indicated were examined both shortly after the treatment (1 to 1.5 month) and in the long-term period. Duodenal ulcer developed in 4 persons (5%) in the long-term period, which is 5 times more seldom as compared to the reported data.

Humoral antibodies were investigated by the method of immunothermistography in 43 rabbits after allotransplantation of the skin and cornea. The method of immunothermistography is based on the changes in thermoconduction of the medium as a result of the antigen-antibody reaction. The antibodies were discovered in the blood serum 3 to 5 days after the skin transplantation. The antibody titre gradually increased. Retransplantation of the skin at first decreased the concentration of antibodies, but the antibody titre rose in 8-12 days. In most of the animals the antibodies disappeared in 2-3 months. The same data were obtained in transplantation of the cornea. A correlation between thermistography data and Hougher's reaction and also the dynamics of the complement titre was found. The method of immunothermistography aids in discovery of the humoral tissue antibodies at the early period of the rejection reaction; it is highly sensitive and simple.

In more than 1000 patients with noncalculous cholecystitis, chronic colitis (nonulcerative, nonspecific ulcerative, Crohn's disease of the bowel) and with dyskinesia of intestine the participation of allergic components was investigated in the development and chronic duration of the diseases. More often was observed the sensibilization to bacteria of conditionally pathogenetic microflora (E. coli, staphylococcus, streptococcus, proteus) that was confirmed by positive skin tests, sensibilization of lymphocytes to microbic allergens, increase of the titer of microbic antibodies in blood. The sensibilization to tissue proteins and subcellular fractions (nucleus, mitochondrias, microsomes) was seldom observed. Autoimmune disorders appeared in patients with nonspecific ulcerative colitis by ascending doses of bacterial allergens of E. coli, proteus, staphylococcus, streptococcus. By means of the study of direct and remote results of specific immunotherapy there was established the dynamic of clinical and laboratory-instrumental indices of the patients state, and of immunologic tests, reflecting the nonspecific factors of defense, microbic and tissue allergy.