Identification of Histopathologic Criteria to Differentiate Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH) from Chronic Viral Hepatitis (B, C) in Liver Biopsy Samples

Chronic hepatitis is a common disease in the community. Differential diagnosis of hepatitis is very important in the treatment of this disease; as applying the wrong treatment method can lead to reinforcement and aggravate. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of histopathologic criteria for distinguishing between and for accurate differentiation of chronic viral hepatitis from autoimmune hepatitis.
In a cross-sectional study, 45 patients with autoimmune hepatitis, 34 patients with hepatitis B and 33 patients with hepatitis C were investigated for presence of histopathological criteria. The data were analyzed using chi-square and diagnostic tests.
Findings: Among the 12 indicators, 5 criteria including interface hepatitis, lymphoid follicle in port area, emperipolesis, hepatic rosette and ground glass hepatocyte had the ability to differentiate types of hepatitis. The predictive percent of above parameters for autoimmune hepatitis was 80%, for hepatitis B was 76.5% and for hepatitis C was 69.7%.
Based on the results, histopathological parameters can differentiate between types of chronic hepatitis in patients at an acceptable level which among them, interface hepatitis is used to differentiate autoimmune hepatitis and chronic hepatitis C from chronic hepatitis B; lymphoid follicle in port area is used to differentiate chronic hepatitis C, emperipolesis and hepatic rosette to differentiate autoimmune hepatitis and ground glass hepatocyte to differentiate chronic hepatitis B from the other two types.