ABSTRACT
Chronic hepatitis is defined as a chronic inflammation of the liver continuing without improvement for at least 6 months. Autoimmune chronic hepatitis is characterized, in addition, by the presence of ‘piecemeal necrosis’ (a term now becoming outdated, the equivalent in newer staging systems being ‘periportal hepatitis’), hypergammaglobulinaemia, and elevated levels of circulating liverassociated autoantibodies (see below). These autoantibodies are important diagnostically, but their role in the pathogenesis and course of the disease is unknown. Other causes of chronic hepatitis include chronic viral hepatitis, haemochromatosis, drugs, Wilson’s disease and α1-antitrypsin deficiency, and are discussed elsewhere.
