1. Plan of Attack
Autoimmune liver disease, or autoimmune hepatitis disease, causes your body's immune system to attack your liver cells and your bile duct cells. Your liver becomes inflamed, called hepatitis. If your doctor diagnosis you with autoimmune liver disease, you will have one of the following: increased globulins or antibody levels, a positive auto-antibody, a multi-organ disease or another disease.
2. Different Types of Disease
There are two subtypes of autoimmune liver disease. Type 1 is classified with a positive test of classical nuclear antibody or smooth muscle antibodies. Type 1 is the most commonly diagnosed disease type. Type 2 is classified with a reactive liver kidney antibody, or LKM. These antibodies are not seen with type-1 patients of autoimmune hepatitis.
3. Recognize Autoimmune Liver Disease
The most common symptoms are fatigue and enlarged liver. Some other common symptoms are jaundice, skin rashes that itch, joint pain, stomach pains or discomfort, nausea, vomiting, reduced appetite, dark urine or gray stools. Chronic autoimmune liver disease causes cirrhosis of the liver or scarring and hardening and eventually the liver fails. If you have advanced stages of autoimmune liver disease, you will have fluid in your stomach or mental confusion. If you are female, you will stop having your menstrual periods.
4. Causes of Hepatitis
Researchers believe genetics play a factor in some people having autoimmune diseases. They believe that some people are more susceptible to getting autoimmune liver disease than others due to the antibodies they have or don't have in their bodies. They are not exactly sure what causes autoimmune liver disease. They are conducting more research to look at the possible triggers of the disease and how to prevent them. The researchers are also looking as ways to find out if these are isolated events of cells malfunctioning or if they are a bigger part of a defective immune system.
5. Seek Treatment From Your Doctor
The most common treatments are drug therapy treatments, such as immunosuppression and steroids. Get treatment early at the first sign of symptoms to avoid cirrhosis of your liver. Patients with type-2 autoimmune hepatitis have an aggressive form and need to get treatment right away. Type 2 does not respond well to treatments of steroids. There are alternatives for type-2 patients, such as immunosuppression. Immunosuppression drugs are those that decrease your immune system's activity.
