Autoimmune Hepatitis Look

[NicoleAJ]

My doctors are going to test me for autoimmune hepatitis because of various symptoms I've been having (significant enough to land me in the hospital for a week). When I looked it up on the Mayo Clinic, several of the common medical complications listed were those that a lot of us on the board have, including celiac disease. Pernicious anemia and ulcerative colitis were also prevalent complications, and I know several of us have those as well. I guess I'm just looking for insight before the test results come back. If anyone does have it, I'd really appreciate hearing how you were diagnosed and what you've been doing to treat it (beyond prednisone for life). Thanks!

Nicole

[2kids4me]

My daughter just had a bunch of tests to rule it out, including an ultrasound of her liver. All blood test came back negative for autoimmune hepatitis. They just pulled more blood on Friday for an ENA panel and compliments to rule out systemic lupus since she has high titre ANA ( which can be positive in patients iwth autimmune diseases other than lupus).

I know I saw some posts here previously from someone with primary bilary cirrhosis which is a type of autoimmune lver disease.

Good luck with all the tests.

Sandy

[ravenwoodglass]

My doctors are going to test me for autoimmune hepatitis because of various symptoms I've been having (significant enough to land me in the hospital for a week). When I looked it up on the Mayo Clinic, several of the common medical complications listed were those that a lot of us on the board have, including celiac disease. Pernicious anemia and ulcerative colitis were also prevalent complications, and I know several of us have those as well. I guess I'm just looking for insight before the test results come back. If anyone does have it, I'd really appreciate hearing how you were diagnosed and what you've been doing to treat it (beyond prednisone for life). Thanks!

Nicole

My twin brother had this years ago. Unfortunately at that time there wasn't anything they could do. He was diagnosed with a liver biopsy. I hope this is not an issue for you but I do know that once we go gluten free the body seems to have an amazing ability to heal and the liver is one organ that can regenerate. I would also consider this a complication of the celiac rather than the celiac being a complication of the hepatitis. Good luck and sorry I could not have been of more help.

[NicoleAJ]

Thank you both for your responses. Sandy, I hope that your daughters tests all turn out ok. Ravenwoodglass, I would tend to agree that celiac disease is the culprit, but I was just taking the info from the Mayo Clinic's write-up on autoimmune hepatitis. The good news is that if it does turn out I have it, most people are able to keep it under control on very low doses of steriods and another med that counteracts the effects of the steroids. We'll see what happens--hopefully I don't have it, but I've gotta remain optimistic about all of these things because I'm just sick of being down about being sick. Thanks again.

[kathy w]

My doctors are going to test me for autoimmune hepatitis because of various symptoms I've been having (significant enough to land me in the hospital for a week). When I looked it up on the Mayo Clinic, several of the common medical complications listed were those that a lot of us on the board have, including celiac disease. Pernicious anemia and ulcerative colitis were also prevalent complications, and I know several of us have those as well. I guess I'm just looking for insight before the test results come back. If anyone does have it, I'd really appreciate hearing how you were diagnosed and what you've been doing to treat it (beyond prednisone for life). Thanks!

Nicole

[kathy w]

Nicole,

I do have autoimmune hepatitis. I was recently diagnosed with that and celiac. My liver function tests were high, which prompted my husbands liver specialist (he also has Hep C) to order tests on me which pointed to celiac and confirmed autoimmune hepatitis. He also did a TEE and took a snip from my intestine and confirmed I was a celiac. He put me on Prednisone 20 mg a day and Imuran originally. Now I'm taking 15 Mg of Prednisone and Imuran. My tests have gone up and down. I really had no symptoms of anything. I am researching the idea that the Hepatitis occurred due to my Celiac condition. Currently I am playing with a gluten free diet. The research may help me buy all the way into dieting as being a cure for my hepatitis and possibly other upcoming autoimmune problems. I hope this info helps you. What occurred that caused them to hospitalize you?