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Treatment with prednisone, with or without azathioprine, triggers remission in most patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). However, about 65% of these patients relapse after treatment withdrawal. Some experts advocate discontinuing treatment only in patients who exhibit normal histology during treatment, as evaluated by liver biopsies, but even patients with normal histology can relapse. In this study, investigators assessed additional factors that might help to predict which AIH patients can discontinue treatment safely.
At a single tertiary-care center in Minnesota, 132 patients (mean age, 46; 80% women) fulfilled international criteria for type 1 AIH. Patients were treated with either azathioprine plus prednisone (95 patients) or high-…