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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Dec 21.
Published in final edited form as: J Hepatol. 2023 May 8;79(3):853–866. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.04.033

Table 4.

Recommended data for proper assessement of a suspected case of drug-induced autoimmune-like hepatitis.

Basic assessment criteria
Demographics • Age, sex, weight, BMI, ethnicity
Clinical data • Comorbid conditions, autoimmune disorders, underlying liver disease (e.g. steatosis)
• Toxic habits: alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, over the counter drugs
• Type of liver injury (aminotransferases, bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase)
• Signs and symptoms: jaundice, hypersensitivity features (rash, peripheral eosinophilia, lymphopenia), encephalopathy, ascites, hospitalisation
Drug exposure history • Take a thorough pharmacological history with exposure to drugs/vaccines/herbal remedies with doses and start-stop dates
• Excluded exposure to immune-checkpoint inhibitors
Temporal relationship* • Treatment duration, days
• Latency, days
Meet criteria definition for DILI •  ALT exceeding 5x ULN
• ALP exceeding 2x ULN
• ALT exceeding 3x ULN and bilirubin exceeding 2x ULN
Exclusion of alternative diagnoses# • Viral hepatitis A, B, C, and E, biliary obstruction, AIH, alcohol-related hepatitis, ischaemic hepatitis, malignancy
Biochemical parameters • Liver profile at onset, on remission, when worsening, relapse (ALT, AST, ALP, total bilirubin, INR)
• Autoantibodies: ANA, ASMA with pattern on kidney tissue, Anti-LKM1, anti-SLA/LP
• IgG levels
Histological features Date. Description of the following features recommended:
• Pattern of injury (portal or lobular based hepatitis)
• Degree of necroinflammatory changes and fibrosis according to Ishak’s grading and staging system85
• Plasma cell infiltration or clusters.
• Documentation of other histological features of significance: hepatocellular or canalicular cholestasis, chronic cholestasis changes, eosinophils, confluent necrosis, steatosis, vascular injury)
• Exclusion of other diseases (e.g., steatohepatitis, cholangiopathy)
• Overall assessment based on the revised AIH scoring system, simplified criteria, and histological criteria3
HLA data • Specific HLA for given drugs and general AIH-related HLA
Severity** • As recommended for DILI
• nR-based Hy’s law
Treatment • Steroid Therapy (when initiated)
• Other immunosuppressant needed
• Still on immunosuppressant
Outcome • Remission achieved
• Worsening of the disease
• Relapse
• Liver-related death
• Liver transplant
Follow-up •  2–4 weeks, 1–3-6–12-18–24 months after diagnosis and once a year thereafter for 5 years
Causality assessment tools • The RUCAM/CIOMS and its recently improved version RECAM.
• The revised and the simplified AIH scoring systems issued by the International Autoimmune Hepatitis Group

AIH, autoimmune hepatitis; ALP, alkaline phosphatase; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; ANA, anti-nuclear antibody; anti-LKM1, anti-liver-kidney microsomal type 1 antibody; anti-SLA/LP, anti-soluble liver antigen/liver pancreas antigen; ASMA, anti-smooth muscle/anti-actin antibody; DILI, drug-induced liver injury; INR, international normalised ratio; RUCAM/CIOMS, Roussel Uclaf Causality Assessment Method/Council of International Organization of Medical Sciences; ULN, upper limit of normal.

*

Between drug exposure and injury onset and improvement.

#

Imaging studies needed.

Measured at different times of follow-up.

**

As recommended by Aithal et al.85