Immunological response and oesophageal varices in PBC.

A retrospective study was made of the clinical features, especially oesophageal varices, of 93 patients with PBC. The 5 year survival rate of asymptomatic PBC patients was 88.7% and that of symptomatic PBC was 43.7%. The 5 year survival rate of the group with oesophageal varices was 44.0% and that of the group without varices was 68.8%. The 5 year survival rate of the patients with high-risk varices was 39.1% and of those without high-risk varices was 67.9%. Management of variceal bleeding in PBC patients was considered very difficult. In prognostic study, the patients with the prophylactic therapy were better than the patients with emergency or elective therapy. The antiM8 (a subtype of antimitochondrial antibody) positive patients had poor prognosis compared with antiM8 negative patients. Therefore, it was concluded from these data that some kind of treatment was necessary for patients with high-risk varices. In particular, it was considered necessary to monitor closely the patients whose serum alkaline phosphatase levels had remained high.