title: Immune Components of Liver Damage Associated with Connective Tissue Diseases.
abstract: Autoimmune connective tissue diseases are associated with liver abnormalities and often have overlapping pathological and clinical manifestations. As a result, they can present great clinical challenges and evoke questions about diagnostic criteria for liver diseases. Moreover, discriminating between liver involvement as a manifestation of connective tissue disease and primary liver disease can be challenging since they share a similar immunological mechanism. Most patients with connective tissue diseases exhibit liver test abnormalities that likely result from coexisting, primary liver diseases, such as fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, autoimmune hepatitis, and drug-related liver toxicity. Liver damage can be progressive, leading to cirrhosis, complications of portal hypertension, and liver-related death, and, therefore, must be accurately identified. In this review, we highlight the challenges facing the diagnosis of liver damage associated with connective tissue disease and identify immune mechanisms involved in liver damage associated with connective tissue diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia ; Faculty of Medicine, King Saud Ben AbdulAziz University-Health Sciences, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh.
authors.forename: Aziz A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Chentoufi
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Genetic, Research Institute of Gerontology, Ministry of Health, Leonova 16, Moscow, Russia.
authors.forename: Youri A
authors.initials: YA
authors.lastname: Serov
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mansour
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alazmi
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Pathology and Clinical Laboratory Medicine, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Kamaldeen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baba
keywords: Abnormal liver tests; Antiphospholipid syndrome; Autoimmune hepatitis; Rheumatoidarthritis; Scleroderma; Sjögren’s syndrome; Systemic lupus erythematosus