Autoimmune hepatitis is a rare inflammatory liver disease rarely considered in the older patient, although current evidence has shown it can occur across all ages. Physicians must be aware of the particularities of disease presentation and management in older adults.
The authors describe a 77-year old female patient who presented with persistently elevated liver function tests and was found to have type 1 autoimmune hepatitis. After initiation of treatment, the patient went into clinical and biochemical remission, which persisted after treatment suspension, with no evidence of relapse, to date.
Although conventional regimens have been shown to be highly effective in achieving remission in the elderly, further studies are warranted to best address the needs of this subgroup of patients and establish the most effective and safe treatment protocols.
