Autoimmune Hepatitis in Children in a Tertiary Care Hospital: Report of a Series of Cases

Introduction: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) in children is an inflammatory disease of the liver, characterizad histologically by mononuclear cell infiltrates in the portal system, and serologically by the presence of liver-specific autoantibodies and increased transaminase and IgG levels in the absence of a known pathology that could affect the liver. Case Reports: We present 10 cases of patients with a mean age of 12 years diagnosed with All I, including 2 female (20%) and 8 male (80%) patients; 4 cases were of Type 1, 1 was Type 2, and 5 were unclassifiable. Elevated transaminase (>= x10 normal value) was observed in 70%, while hypergammaglobulinemia was seen in all cases. Treatment instituted was corticosteroids and azathioprine in all patients, with a mean time to remission of 4-6 weeks. Treatment elopement occurred in 3 cases, 2 of which resulted in death. Discussion: AIH presents general and specific clinical manifestations in early stages of the disease. The high response rate to medical treatment in our study leads us to suggest that early diagnosis and treatment are very important in preventing progression to cirrhosis.