High Prevalence of Seroimmunologic Abnormalities in Relatives of Patients with Active Chronic Hepatitis or Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

To determine the familial prevalence of serologic abnormalities, immunoglobulin disturbances and biochemical evidence of liver dysfunction, 260 relatives of patients with chronic hepatitis or primary biliary cirrhosis were studied. Mitochondrial, smooth-muscle and nuclear antibodies were more frequent than in controls matched for age and sex. Abnormal immunoglobulin levels occurred in almost half the relatives, and 71 per cent had some immunologic disturbance. In addition, elevated alkaline phosphatase levels and hypergammaglobulinemia were common, the latter being more frequent (p<0.001) in the group with active chronic hepatitis (34 per cent) than in the relatives of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (9.3 per cent). Furthermore, in three of the 55 families studied, two or more members were found to have cirrhosis. These findings suggest a similar genetic predisposition to immunologic abnormalities among the families of patients with these two diseases, although environmental factors are p...