Abstract
Autoimmune cholangitis is a clinical constellation of chronic cholestasis,
histological changes of chronic nonsuppurative cholangitis and the presence of
autoantibodies other than antimitochondrial antibody (AMA). It is uncertain
whether this entity is definitely different from AMA positive primary biliary
cirrhosis (PBC), though it shows some differences. We report a case of
autoimmune cholangitis in a 59-year-old woman, who had been previously diagnosed
as AMA-positive PBC associated with rheumatoid arthritis, has been converted to
an AMA-negative and anticentromere antibody-positive PBC during follow-up. The
response to ursodeoxycholic acid treatment is poor except within the first few
months, but prednisolone was dropping the biochemical laboratory data.