Autoimmune processes in the liver can cause severe damage and destruction leading to cirrhosis and liver failure. The clinical spectrum of autoimmune liver disease is very wide, and diagnostic difficulties often stand at the beginning of the patient's medical career. While in autoimmune hepatitis immunosuppressive therapy has long been shown to be life-saving, therapeutic progress is small in primary biliary cirrhosis and questionable in primary sclerosing cholangitis. New approaches to treatment will be needed in the future, but require better understanding of the pathogenesis of the underlying disease process.


This book, the proceedings of Falk Symposium 142 on 'Autoimmune Liver Disease' held in Freiburg, Germany, on 12-13 October 2004 (Part I of the Gastroenterology Week Freiburg), describes possible mechanisms of pathogenesis, discusses diagnostic criteria and takes up controversies concerning treatment options. In view of the relatively frequent manifestation of autoimmune hepatitis in childhood in particular, paediatric aspects of autoimmune liver disease, and the role of liver transplantation, are given prominence.