Maaike Biewenga

Autoimmune hepatitis and overlapsyndromes

Auto immune hepatitis (AIH) is a chronic auto immune disease characterized by raised aminotransferases, raised IgG, auto antibodies and interface hepatitis. In 10% of the patients there are also main features of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) or primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), also called overlap syndromes. 
Focus of the current research are:

• Comparison between autoimmune hepatitis patients and patients with overlapsyndromes
• Development of non-invasive markers for monitoring fibrosis and fibrosis development
• Immunological markers for better understanding of pathophysiology, disease activity and response to therapy
• Improving medication for AIH
• CAMARO study: use of mycofenolaat mofetil compared with Azathioprine for remission induction in treatment naïve autoimmune hepatitis
• Use of second-line therapy in AIH
• AMBER study: for patients with difficult to treat autoimmune hepatitis

All research is done in cooperation with the Dutch AIH Working Group. Link

Besides the work on autoimmune hepatitis, research to improve medication after liver transplantation is done. Tacrolimus is often used as immunosuppressive medication after liver transplantation. Envarsus is meltdose tacrolimus with a slower release and lower peak concentration than Advagraf. In the Envarsusstudy liver transplant patients are converted from Advagraf to Envarsus to create a pharmacokinetic model.

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