Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) is a chronic liver disease caused by progressive inflammation and scarring of the bile ducts of the liver. The inflammation impedes the flow of bile to the gut, which can ultimately lead to liver cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer. The underlying cause of the inflammation is believed to be autoimmunity; and more than 80% of those with PSC have ulcerative colitis. The definitive treatment is liver transplantation.
Read more about Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis: Signs and Symptoms, Diagnosis, Etiology, Pathophysiology, Epidemiology, Related Diseases, Therapy, Prognosis
Famous quotes containing the word primary:
“If the accumulated wealth of the past generations is thus tainted,—no matter how much of it is offered to us,—we must begin to consider if it were not the nobler part to renounce it, and to put ourselves in primary relations with the soil and nature, and abstaining from whatever is dishonest and unclean, to take each of us bravely his part, with his own hands, in the manual labor of the world.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)