Autoimmune Hepatitis

[Upa]

Hi:

I would like to ask you some questions in relation to my son's (17 year old) autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).  Last year, in May, he was diagnosed as having AIH after having been admitted to the hospital for severe hepatitis(his blood work analyses were ALT 4182, AST 4578, GGT 94, AP 547, and Bili R 19.4). The liver biopsy indicated inflammation but not cirrhosis. Prior
to this, he had sinusitis from Dec.1998 till May and was on medication first on amoxocillin and later on Lorabid). Because of being allergic to amoxocillin, Lorabid was prescribed. And while on the latter, he developed the liver disease.  After being diagnosed as having AIH (although no autoantibodies were found), he was given prednisone and immuran to which he
responded very well. Presently, he is on 5 mg prednisone and 75mg immuran every day.  However his GGT and ESR are high (respectively, 140 and 65). I have the following questions.

1.  Could his AIH been Lorabid triggered/induced?
2.  Could the AIH been caused by the virus?
3.  How about stress being a caue?
3.  Is it AIH or could it be something else (because all his autoantibody tests were negative)?
4.  Based on biopsy, can the distinction be made between AIH and drug induced hepatitis?
5.  What does higher GGT mean at this point (although all other LFTs are normal and GGT were normal until June, first week, this year)?
6.  What does higher ESR (70-80 mm/h) mean (it was done only for last 3 months and has been high during that time)? Is it related to AIH?
7.  What lies ahead for him? What life expectancy can we expect?
8.  In your experience, how long (max.) has a patient of AIH has lived before needing a transplant?
9.  And lastly, who would you suggest for a second opinion considering that we are in WI?

I know I have asked too many questions but would really appreciate your input with regard to these questions.

Thanks for your help.

UPA