title: Primary biliary cirrhosis: natural history.
abstract: All patients seen with primary biliary cirrhosis during this decade were reviewed. Sixty per cent were diagnosed during the earliest asymptomatic stage of this illness and only 20% progressed symptomatically during a mean follow-up period of 52 months. Those patients presenting with persistent jaundice followed a classic downhill course. These data establish the previously predicted trend toward earlier diagnosis and raise questions about the concept of universal progression of this disease and its time course.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002779:Cholestasis / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies