[Treatment of cholestatic liver disease].

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) are chronic cholestatic liver diseases, biochemically characterized by an elevated serum bilirubin, alkaline phosphatase and gamma-glutamyl transferase. Although PBC and PSC have their own distinctive clinical, immunological, radiological and histological features, both diseases show a necro-inflammatory process, predominantly confined to the bile ducts within the portal tracts. In most patients the disease gradually progress and may lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. Transplantation may than be the only therapeutic option left.