title: [Clinical and pathological features of autoimmune hepatitis: no significant differences between genders].
abstract: To explore the clinical and pathological features of male and female autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and sixty-nine AIH patients were enrolled. The clinical and histological data of the male cases were compared with the female ones.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were 23 (13.6%) male patients in our study. The general status, biochemical and immunological test, and histological findings between two groups had no significant difference (P more than 0.05). The IAIHG's revised original scoring system pretreatment scores of male patients (14.4+/-2.3) were lower than that of female ones (16.6+/-2.6, Z= -3.728, P=0.000), whereas the simplified scoring system scores of male patients (7.2+/-0.8) were higher than that of female ones (6.5+/-1.2, Z=-2.372, P=0.018). There were 15 male AIH patients treated with immunosuppressive therapy, then 12 of them reached complete biochemical remission, the other three cases were incomplete response. The complete biochemical remission rate in our male cases was 80%. Median duration of remission was 3 months (95% CI 2.070-3.930 months).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There are no significant differences in clinical and pathological features of AIH between genders. The diagnosis of AIH should be suspected in male patients with any abnormality in serum aminotransferases levels. Liver biopsy examination is recommended to establish the diagnosis of AIH. The simplified criteria have good diagnostic value for male AIH patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Digestive Disease, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Qi-xia
authors.initials: QX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Miao
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Xiao-yu
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: De-kai
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Xiong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D019693:Hepatitis, Autoimmune / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult