Table 1.

Patient characteristics at the time of the first visit

Sex (M/F)	40/360
Age (y)	54  (21–86)
No of symptomatic patients*	188  (47%)
No with liver cirrhosis	152  (38%)
Total bilirubin (μmol/l) (nv ≤19)	14  (3–391)
Alkaline phosphatase (IU/l) (nv <279)	729  (70–4615)
Albumin (g/l)	41  (25–53)
Prothrombin time (INR)	1.0 (0.4–1.8)
Total cholesterol (mmol/l)	6.2 (2.0–26.8)
No with total cholesterol >5.2 mmol/l	304  (76%)
HDL cholesterol (mmol/l)	1.5 (0.1–3.7)
No with HDL cholesterol <1.0 mmol/l	49  (17%)
Total/HDL cholesterol ratio	4.1 (1.8–59.2)
*The following are considered specific symptoms of primary biliary cirrhosis: pruritus, jaundice, major complications of portal hypertension (ascites, variceal bleeding, portal-systemic encephalopathy).
Laboratory data are presented as median (range).
HDL, high density lipoprotein; INR, international normalised ratio; nv, normal value.

To convert SI units to mg/dl, total and HDL cholesterol values should be multiplied by 38.7 and bilirubin values should be divided by 17.1.