Peritoneoscopic Findings of Autoimmune Hepatitis

Abstract: To clarify the morphologic differences between hepatitis C virus (HCVI‐negative autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and HCV‐positive AIH, peritoneoscopic findings were studied. Among twenty three patients with AIH according to the Japanese criteria (1992), 15 were HCV‐negative and 8 were HCV‐positive. The terms grooved depression, coarse depression, coarse elevation, coarse undulation, and round‐shaped reddish marking (RM) were used in this study to evaluate the peritoneoscopic findings. Grooved depressions, coarse depressions, coarse elevations, coarse undulations and round‐shaped RMs were all common findings (53%, 87%, 73%, 80%, and 80%, respectively) in HCV‐negative AIH patients, but they were less common (13%, 25%, 13%, 13%, and 0%, respectively) in HCV‐positive AIH patients. This study revealed that HCV‐negative AIH patients had different peritoneoscopic findings from HCV‐positive AIH patients. Thus HCV‐negative AIH may be typical AIH, and HCV‐positive AIH may essentially be a subset of type C chronic hepatitis.