• 1 January 1980
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 73  (3) , 223-226
Abstract
All patients seen with primary biliary cirrhosis during this decade were reviewed. Sixty percent were diagnosed during the earliest asymptomatic stage of this illness and only 20% progressed symptomatically during a mean follow-up period of 52 mo. Those patients presenting with persistent jaundice followed a classic downhill course. These data establish the previously predicted trend toward earlier diagnosis and raise questions about the concept of universal progression of this disease and its time cause.