Hepatic Manifestations of Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases ANNALS of GASTROENTEROLOGY 2005, 18(3):309-324309

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Hepatic Manifestations of Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases ANNALS of GASTROENTEROLOGY 2005, 18(3):309-324309 Hepatic manifestations of autoimmune rheumatic diseases ANNALS OF GASTROENTEROLOGY 2005, 18(3):309-324309 Review Hepatic manifestations of autoimmune rheumatic diseases Aspasia Soultati, S. Dourakis SUMMARY the association between primary autoimmune rheumatolog- ic disease and associated hepatic abnormalities and the Autoimmune rheumatic diseases including Systemic Lu- pharmaceutical interventions that are related to liver dam- pus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogrens syn- age are presented. drome, Myositis, Antiphospholipid Syndrome, Behcets syndrome, Scleroderma and Vasculitides have been associ- Key words: Connective Tissue Disease, Systemic Lupus Ery- ated with hepatic injury by virtue of multisystem immune thematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogrens syndrome, and inflammatory involvement. Liver involvement preva- Myositis, Giant-Cell Arteritis, Antiphospholipid Syndrome, lence, significance and specific hepatic pathology vary. Af- Behcets syndrome, Scleroderma, Vasculitis, Steatosis, Nod- ter careful exclusion of potentially hepatotoxic drugs or co- ular Regenerative Hyperplasia, portal hypertension, Autoim- incident viral hepatitis the question remains whether liver mune Hepatitis, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis, Primary Scleros- involvement emerges as a manifestation of generalized con- ing Cholangitis nective tissue disease or it reflects an underlying primary liver disease sharing an immunological mechanism. Com- 1. Introduction monly recognised features include mild elevation of liver A variety of autoimmune rheumatic diseases includ- laboratory values and non specific histological images. ing Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthri- Hepatic steatosis, nodular regenerative hyperplasia, por- tis, Sjogrens syndrome, Myositis, Vasculitis, Antiphos- tal vein obliteration and portal hypertension, features of pholipid Syndrome, Behcets syndrome and Systemic primary biliary cirrhosis, vascular disorders, granuloma- Sclerosis, have been associated with liver involvement tous reactions and rarely portal fibrosis with abnormal lob- and their prevalence, significance and specific hepatic ular architecture are possible histological findings. Diag- pathology varies.1 Although advanced liver disease with nosis can be established on serological, histological and cirrhosis and liver failure is rarely documented in patients clinical features and after careful exclusion of other possi- with connective tissue diseases, clinical and biochemical ble causes. Association between antirheumatic drugs and evidence of associated liver abnormalities is commonly hepatic dysfunction has been established in the past. Liver identified2 . Previous treatment with potentially hepato- involvement may vary from a mild asymptomatic elevation toxic drugs or coincident viral hepatitis have usually been of liver transaminases or cholestasis parameters to a ful- implicated as predominant causes of liver disorders. minant hepatitis. A review of the literature to determine However, even after careful exclusion of these aetiolo- gies, the question remains whether to classify the patient as having a primary liver disease with associated autoim- mune, clinical, and laboratory features or as having liver 2nd Department of Medicine, Medical School, Athens University, Hippokration General Hospital, Athens. Soultati Aspasia, Medical disease as a manifestation of generalized connective tis- Doctor in training, Dourakis S.P, Associate Professor in Internal sue disease. Medicine-Hepatology Hepatic steatosis, nodular regenerative hyperplasia, Author for corresponding and reprints request: portal vein obliteration and portal hypertension, features of primary biliary cirrhosis, vascular disorders, granulo- S.P Dourakis, 28 Achaias st, 115 23 Athens, Greece. Tel 210 6918464, 6932272477, FAX 210 6993693. matous reactions and rarely portal fibrosis with abnor- e-mail: [email protected] mal lobular architecture are possible histological find- [email protected] ings.3 (Table 1) In a series conducted in 306 patients (106 310 ASPASIA SOULTATI, S. DOURAKIS with SLE, 71 with Sjogrens syndrome, 59 with rheuma- agent. Five of 9 patients in whom the hepatic lesion pro- toid arthritis, 27 with scleroderma, 30 with polymyositis, gressed had hepatotropic virus infection (4 with HCV and 13 with polyarteritis nodosa) liver disturbance was and 1 with HBV), and the other 4 patients suffered from 4 documented in 43% of these patients and resulted from autoimmune liver diseases. various causes. Liver disease was characterized by mild Association between antirheumatic drugs and hepatic and transient elevation of liver laboratory values, mini- dysfunction has been established in the past. Liver in- mal change in liver histology. In 8 of 14 patients with volvement may vary from a mild asymptomatic elevation histologically proven chronic hepatitis or cirrhosis, hepa- of liver transaminases or cholestasis parameters to a ful- totropic virus was identified as the potential evoking minant hepatitis. Rheumatic DISEASE SIGNS-LFTS LIVER DISEASE SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS Hepatomegaly Steatosis Splenomegaly Autoimmune hepatitis, Jaundice granulomas, ALT­ haemochromatosis, cholestasis, primary biliary cirrhosis, non-specific reactive changes, ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID SYNDROME Hepatomegaly Autoimmune hepatitis Jaundice Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia ALT­ Budd Chiari syndrome RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS ALP­ necrotizing hepatic arteritis ã-GT­ Non specific histological findings Steatosis Primary biliary cirrhosis Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia FELTYS SYNDROME Hepatomegaly Non specific histological findings Steatosis Portal hypertension Nodular Regenerative Hyperplasia ALP­ MYOSITIS Jaundice Autoimmune hepatitis ALP­ Primary biliary cirrhosis SCLERODERMA Hepatomegaly Primary biliary cirrhosis, Jaundice autoimmune hepatitis, liver enzymes­ Cryptogenic cirrhosis, idiopathic portal hypertension, primary sclerosing cholangitis nodular regenerative hyperplasia SJOGRENS SYNDROME liver enzymes­ Primary biliary cirrhosis Jaundice Autoimmune hepatitis Cryptogenic cirrhosis Polyarteritis nodosa Hepatomegaly Hematomas Jaundice aneurysm liver enzymes­ Hypersensitivity vasculitis Hepatomegaly Hepatitis Jaundice liver enzymes­ Granulomatous vasculitis ALP­ Granulomas ã-GT­ Table 1: Hepatic manifestations of autoimmune rheumatic diseases. LFTs=liver function tests Hepatic manifestations of autoimmune rheumatic diseases 311 A Medline search of all published papers and case be attributed either to the disease process itself or to the reports of hepatic involvement in autoimmune rheumatic steroid treatment.14 During the histological evaluation diseases published between 1966 and 2004 was made. of 19 patients with SLE and hepatomegaly or abnormal liver function tests, 11 sheared minor alterations in liver 2. Systemic lupus erythematosus biopsy including fatty infiltration, portal tract fibrosis and Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic au- mild to moderate cellular infiltration and two patients toimmune disease sharing multisystem involvement and had chronic active hepatitis which progressed to cirrho- diverse clinical and serological manifestations, principally sis.15 According to Gibson and Myers, portal inflamma- affecting women during the child bearing years5 . Clini- tion was revealed in 5 of the 81 SLE patients, fatty liver cally significant hepatic dysfunction is generally regard- in one and chronic active hepatitis in one patient.10 ed as unusual in SLE and previous treatment with po- Autoimmune hepatitis (Lupoid hepatitis) is a tentially hepatotoxic drugs or viral hepatitis have usual- chronic necroinflammatory liver disease of unknown or- ly been implicated as the most relevant causes for such unusual complications. Yet careful exclusion of such igin associated with circulating autoantibodies high se- causative factors raises a quite complicated dilemma re- rum globulin level and hepatocellular necrosis and in- garding differential diagnosis between liver disease as a flammation which leads to cirrhosis and hepatic failure. manifestation of SLE or primary liver disease with asso- The term lupoid hepatitis is inaccurate and reflects the ciated autoimmune clinical and laboratory features re- high prevalence of autoantibodies in this disorder. Dif- sembling SLE.6 ferential diagnosis between autoimmune hepatitis and SLE-associated hepatitis remains a clinical challenge, for The frequency of hepatic involvement in SLE is about giving rise to the need establishment of more sufficient 7 8-23% consisting of several pathophysiological features diagnostic criteria for both diseases. A current defini- and emerging with clinical signs including hepatomega- tion of lupoid hepatitis includes histological evidence of ly (39%), splenomegaly (6%), jaundice (24%) and final- chronic active hepatitis, exclusion of any possible viral ly in 21% of the patients with elevations of liver enzymes causes and positive antinuclear antibodies or LE cell 8 or with abnormal liver histology. According to a retro- preparation. Yet it can be distinguished from SLE by the spective study conducted by Gibson and Myers abnor- absence, usually, of antibodies to double stranded DNA. mal values where revealed in 55% of 81 patients diag- Lupoid hepatitis shares common clinical manifestations nosed with SLE and 29% of them had no cause for the with SLE such as fever, arthralgia, malaise, loss of appe- documented changes other than SLE.9 In a study by Mill- tite and jaundice. Several cases reported in the litera- er et al, liver enzyme
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