Current research on the treatment and diagnosis of primary sclerosing cholangitis

Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic autoimmune cholestatic liver disease, with intrahepatic and/or extrahepatic bile duct diffuse inflammation, fibrosis, focal or segmental stenosis as the main features. Eventually this disease leads to bile duct obstruction, biliary cirrhosis and liver failure. The detection and diagnosis rate of PSC are increasing year by year, thus PSC becomes the hot spot for the study of hepatic inflammatory diseases. In this paper, we especially put our focus on the recent progress about diagnosis and treatment of PSC, and some special cases, including primary sclerosing cholangitis-autoimmune hepatitis (PSCAIH), autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP), ductile of PCS. These should help clinicians make a appropriate diagnosis and give correct treatment for these diseases. DOI: 10.11855/j.issn.0577-7402.2016.11.15