Abstract
BACKGROUND: Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune cholestatic liver disease, characterized by progressive destruction of the intrahepatic bile ducts, followed by fibrous substitution of the ducts and potential evolution in cirrhosis. The geographical disparity in the prevalence of PBC suggests a possible role of environmental factors in the development of the disease.
We analyzed two groups of patients with different geographical prevalence. METHODS: This study concerned the analysis of 14 Caucasian patients included into two groups: ten patients enrolled by the Digestive Diseases Unit, University of Catanzaro (Italy), and four patients enrolled by the Department of Hepatology, University Hospital Kralovsk è Vinohrady of Prague (Czech Republic).
The statistical analysis has been performed by using the software IBM SPSS (v. 20, Windows). RESULTS: The Italian group showed a statistically significant difference related to the total bilirubin values both at diagnosis and during the last control (0.74+-0.267 vs. 0.56+-0.246; p-value: 0.013).
Moreover, the comparison between the two groups showed a statistically significant difference for the serum albumin values at the time of the last control (4.6+-0.231 vs. 4.15+-0.532; p-value: 0.048). CONCLUSION: Our data seem to indicate an effective difference in the onset and clinical presentation between our two groups.
More epidemiologic, prospective, and multicenter research projects are warranted to advance PBC knowledge in Europe.