overview
- Illustration of the damage to the biliary tract
- Bile duct damage Open popup dialog
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis (skluh-ROHS-ing) (koh-lan-JIE-tis) is a disease of the biliary tract. The biliary tract carries liquid digestive bile from your liver to your small intestine. In primary sclerosing cholangitis, inflammation causes scars in the bile ducts. These scars make the canals hard and narrow and gradually lead to severe liver damage. The majority of people with primary sclerosing cholangitis also have inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease.
For most people with primary sclerosing cholangitis, the disease progresses slowly. Eventually this can lead to liver failure, repeated infections, and tumors of the bile duct or liver. A liver transplant is the only known cure for advanced primary sclerosing cholangitis, but the disease can recur in the transplanted liver in a small number of people. Primary sclerosing cholangitis Treatment in Khammam
symptoms
Primary sclerosing cholangitis is often diagnosed before symptoms appear when a routine blood test or x-ray done for an unrelated condition reveals liver abnormalities.
The first signs and symptoms are often:
- Tired
- itching
- Yellow eyes and skin (jaundice)
- stomach pain
- Many people diagnosed with primary sclerosing cholangitis before they have symptoms generally feel fine for several years. However, there is no reliable way to predict how quickly or slowly the disease will progress for a person.
Signs and symptoms that may appear as the disease progresses include:
- fever
- chills
- Night sweats
- Enlarged liver
- Extended imagination
- Weight loss
The reasons
It is not known what causes primary sclerosing cholangitis. An immune system response to an infection or a toxin can cause disease in people who are genetically predisposed to it.
A large proportion of people with primary sclerosing cholangitis also have inflammatory bowel disease, an umbrella term that includes ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Primary sclerosing cholangitis Treatment in Khammam
However, primary sclerosing cholangitis and inflammatory bowel disease do not always occur at the same time. In some cases, primary sclerosing cholangitis has existed for years before inflammatory bowel disease occurs. If primary sclerosing cholangitis is diagnosed, it is important to check for inflammatory bowel disease as the risk of colon cancer is higher.
Primary sclerosing cholangitis is also found somewhat less often in people being treated for inflammatory bowel disease. And rarely do people with primary sclerosing cholangitis develop inflammatory bowel disease until after a liver transplant.
Risk factors
Factors that can increase your risk of developing primary sclerosing cholangitis include:
- Age. Primary sclerosing cholangitis can occur at any age, but is most commonly diagnosed between the ages of 30 and 40.
- Sex. Primary sclerosing cholangitis is more common in men.
- Inflammatory bowel disease. A large proportion of people with primary sclerosing cholangitis also suffer from inflammatory bowel disease. Primary sclerosing cholangitis Treatment in Khammam
- Geographical position. People of northern European descent are at greater risk for primary sclerosing cholangitis.