Prevalence and heterogeneity of antinuclear antibody patterns in adult Italian patients with autoimmune liver diseases: Our experience.

Background and Aim: This study aims to explore the clinical significance of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) patterns in liver diseases.
Materials and Methods: We included 396 patients with a request for ANA testing for suspected autoimmune liver disease (AILD). For each patient, we collected demographical, clinical, and laboratory data.
Results: Among the patients, 33% had AILD, predominantly aiutoimmune hepatitis (AIH). The AC1 pattern was significantly more prevalent in AIH patients, while the AC21 pattern was strongly associated with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). AC4-AC5 patterns were less frequent in AIH and PBC patients but more common in non-alcoholic hepatitis. Elevated alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels were observed in AILD patients with AC11, AC12, and AC21 patterns.
Conclusions: These findings highlight the different distribution of ANA patterns in liver diseases, with specific patterns showing strong associations with distinct liver conditions.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)