Primary Biliary Cirrhosis

! Seek urgent medical care if warning signs appear

Some health conditions or symptoms can become urgent. Use this page for education, but seek help quickly if warning signs are present.

Get urgent medical care now if there is any severe, sudden, rapidly worsening or worrying symptom, especially:

chest pain, pressure or pain spreading to the arm, jaw or back
trouble breathing, blue lips, severe wheeze or choking
stroke-like symptoms such as face drooping, arm weakness or speech trouble
collapse, fainting, seizure, confusion or extreme drowsiness
severe bleeding, black stools, vomiting blood or major injury
severe allergic reaction, swelling of the face/throat or widespread rash with breathing trouble
severe abdominal pain, severe headache, stiff neck or sudden vision change
signs of severe dehydration, sepsis, high fever with worsening illness, or symptoms in a baby/young child that concern you

Connected health information

Explore this condition in a clear order

1. Attributes 2. Signs & symptoms 3. Drugs / medications 4. Treatments by type 5. Further tests / investigations 6. Biological / test markers

Linked signs and symptoms

14

Each sign/symptom opens its own page and links back to related conditions.

Linked drugs / medications

2

Medication information is educational only. A doctor or pharmacist should advise whether any medicine is appropriate.

Treatments, therapies and supportive options

6

Grouped by treatment type. These are educational database links, not personal treatment recommendations. Evidence labels are shown only where stored in the EH database.

Medical procedures and investigations

1

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)Strongly Against(Moderate Evidence)

Surgery

1

Liver Transplant

Medical therapy

1

Liver TransplantWeakly in Favour(Low Evidence)

Lifestyle changes

2

Alternative and complementary therapies

1

Chlorella (Green Algae, Chlorella Pyrenoidosa)No Recommendation(Very Low Evidence)

Linked diagnostic tests and investigations

46

These are pulled from both EH diagnostic-test link tables, including the older large test-link table.

Biological markers/agents

48

This visual map shows biological markers/agents reported as increased or decreased with this condition. These are educational relationships only; test results must be interpreted by a qualified clinician because ranges vary by lab, method, age, sex and clinical context.

Often increased

26

Often decreased

22

Introduction / full article

ID 228

Efficacy of Alternative and Other Treatments According to GRADE* Ranking:

Chlorella (Green Algae, Chlorella Pyrenoidosa) [1, 2, 3, 4]:

Please note, this management does NOT treat the condition itself. It may mildly help with some of the symptoms, and even then has insufficient evidence to back up this claim at present.

Recommendation: no recommendation (There is insufficient evidence to support claims that Chlorella helps to treat cirrhosis in any way)

Grade of Evidence: very low quality of evidence

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT):

NOT RECOMENDED

Recommendation: strongly against (available evidence shows that HBOT is in no way useful in treating cirrhosis, and can have harmful effects. NOT RECOMENDED)

Grade of Evidence: Moderate quality of evidence

* www.gradeworkinggroup.org

Summary References

Treatments:
1. Ades T, Alteri R, Gansler T, Yeargin P, "Complete Guide to Complimentary & Alternative Cancer Therapies", American Cancer Society, Atlanta USA, 2009
2. Nakano, S et al. “Maternal-fetal distribution and transfer of dioxins in pregnant women in Japan, and attempts to reduce maternal transfer with Chlorella (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) supplements...” Chemosphere 2005 Dec; 61(9): 1244–55.

3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=11347287&dopt=Abstract

4. http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/HerbsVitaminsandMinerals/chlorella