Objective To investigate the clinical features of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis ( PBC) . Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on the clinical data of 70 inpatients diagnosed with PBC from January 2008 to March 2013. The initial symptoms, liver function, and antimitochondrial antibody ( AMA) subtypes ( M2, M4, and M9) of patients, as well as the pathological results of 3 cases, were recorded. The increases in alanine aminotransferase ( ALT) , aspartate aminotransferase ( AST) , alanine phosphatase ( ALP) , and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase ( GGT) were analyzed by Wilcoxon rank sum test. Results Of all patients, 84. 3% were females; the mean age was 59. 2 ± 8. 7 years. The main clinical manifestations included weakness ( 25. 7%) , itching ( 24. 3%) , discomfort in the upper right abdominal quadrant ( 18. 6%) , and abdominal distension ( 18. 6%) . Abnormal liver function was mainly characterized by significant increases in GGT ( 324. 5 ± 250. 4 U / L) and ALP ( 381. 1 ± 259. 0 U / L) . The number of patients with more than 5-fold increase in GGT was significantly higher than the numbers of patients with more than 5-fold increases in ALT, AST, and ALP ( u =-5. 861, P = 0. 000;u =-4. 036, P = 0. 000; u =-4. 445, P = 0. 000) . The numbers of patients with more than 2-fold increases in AST and ALP were significantly higher than the number of patients with more than 2-fold increase in ALT ( u =-4. 405, P = 0. 000; u =-3. 625, P = 0. 000) .Among all patients, 87. 1% were positive for antimitochondrial M2 antibody ( AM2A) , 31. 4% were positive for AM4A, and 11. 4% were positive for AM9A. Conclusion PBC, more common in females, is the chronic liver damage characterized by significant increases in GGT and ALP. Detection of AMA subtypes ( M2, M4and M9) is valuable for confirming the diagnosis of PBC.
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