To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and provide reference for the diagnosis and treatment of PBC.

Clinical data of 101 patients with PBC who were admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University between October 2005 and November 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. Among them, 7 cases were males and 94 were females, aged 17-80 years old with a median age of 59 years old. The informed consents of all patients were obtained and the local ethical committee approval was received. General data such as age, gender, symptoms and physical signs were summarized. Diagnostic indicators after admission such as routine blood test, liver and renal function, coagulation function and autoantibody, and selection of therapy were analyzed.

The percentage of females among PBC patients was 93.1%(94/101). The incidence of asthenia, jaundice, hematemesis and melena, cutaneous pruritus was respectively 52.5%(53/101), 33.7%(34/101), 14.9%(15/101), 12.9%(13/101). The incidence of splenomegaly, peritoneal effusion, hepatic face and nevus araneus was respectively 73.3%(74/101), 48.5%(49/101), 33.7%(34/101) and 5.9%(6/101). Pancytopenia, abnormal levels of serum ALT, AST, ALP, GGT, TB and DB, and coagulation dysfunction were constantly observed. The incidence of DB abnormality was 97.0% (98/101). The positive rate of anti-mitochondrial antibody (AMA) and antinuclear antibody (ANA) was respectively up to 81.2%(82/101) and 79.2%(80/101). Among all the treatment, drug therapy such as ursodesoxycholic acid accounted for 69.3%(70/101), liver transplantation accounted for 16.8%(17/101) and other symptomatic therapies accounted for 13.9%(14/101).

Mastering the clinical characteristics of PBC patients contributes to early diagnosis and treatment of PBC.