Frecuencia y características clínicas de pacientes con hepatitis autoinmune atendidos en el Hospital de Especialidades José Carrasco Arteaga en el periodo 1/01/2017 al 31/12/2021

Abstract

Background: Due to the clinical variety of presentation of autoimmune hepatitis (HAI) and the lack of pathognomonic findings in diagnostic tests, this pathology is considered infrequent and commonly underdiagnosed, however, thanks to new ways of approach to it, its frequency has increased worldwide. Objectives: To determine the frequency and clinical characteristics of patients with autoimmune hepatitis treated at the José Carrasco Arteaga Specialty Hospital from 01/01/2017 to 12/31/2021. Methodology: Descriptive, retrospective study in patients with HAI. We worked with the information obtained from the hospital's anonymized database, collected with forms, creating an Excel matrix with the data that was analyzed with the statistical program SPSS version 23. The results were presented in contingency tables. Results: 36.4% of the sample (n=88) were categorized as definitive AIH after treatment. This was made up mainly of women (85.2%). Chronic AIH was the predominant form of presentation, mainly associated with hypothyroidism (39.8%). Abdominal pain (78.4%) and jaundice (54.5%) were the outstanding symptoms. The overlap syndrome occurred in 26.2 % of all patients. Anti-nuclear (83%) and anti-smooth muscle (20.5%) antibodies, and interface hepatitis (36.4%) were the predominant immunohistological findings. Combined initial therapy (56.8%) and maintenance immunomodulatory treatment (50%) were the most indicated therapeutic strategies. Conclusion: There is a high frequency of HAI in the sample, with clinical-epidemiological characteristics comparable to other studies.