newly diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis

[bookworm1664]

I am a 42-year-old female who has recently been diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis.  I also have myasthenia gravis (in remission for approximately 5 years) and Hashimoto's thyroiditis.  I am currently taking 40 mg of prednisone daily and my AST and ALT levels have risen since being tapering from 50 mg of prednisone daily.  What else can affect AST and ALT levels to cause an increase?

[whiz41]

I am new at posting comments but was also recently diagnosed with Autoimmune Hepatitis.  It seems as though it was diagnosed in its very early stages and my doctor started me on both prednisone and immuran (azathioprine).  I am currently on 100mg of azathiprine and 21/2 mg of prednisone.  As of last week my liver function blood test was in the normal range.  I have been taking 50mg of the azathiaprine since the 1st of November and the prednisone as much as 30 mg.  So far the two have been working.  I am very pleased with my doctor as he seemed to do everything in the same fashion as I had researched.  I have had a few other symptoms that I am not sure are related but the jury is still out on those.  I wish you luck but don't settle for one doctor if you are not seeing results.

[Maari]

I also have AIH, arthritis and osteopenia.  I know that you often will get more than one autoimmune disease.  What type of doctor are you seeing?  A GP, Gastro or liver specialist?  How long have you been taking prednisone? The reduction of predn could be the cause are Rev said.  But there are other things as well.  Like bile, exercise, etc.  There is a site www.labtestsonline.org  this explains all different types of medical tests and then talks about what the results could mean. I have found this is be very helpful in underdstanding my lab results.

When I was first dx I was put on my first course of predn, I responded, so the Dr started to reduce the mgs.  I started getting some of the fatigue back again.  So he increased the mgs and started me on Imuran.  Imuran is kinder to the body then  predn, but it takes awhile to work. My second time weaning off predn was sucessfull and now am on Imuran only.

I hope you have a knowledgeable Doctor, it is hard to get answers when this is a rare condition. There are only a few people here with AIH. There are some other all AIH sites, if you would like the address just ask.

Take care
Maari

[Forseegood]

hi, there are some people here with autoimmune, but it is mostly hep c...hopefully, they'll come along...

To the forum managers, might there be a way to have seperate forums for the other types of hepatitis? Or at least one for all the other types? Hep C does have the most patients I would imagine, hence so many here...

I don't mean to be presumtous, and I sure don't know all the logistics, etc involved...and i'm very grateful of what you do for all of us...but at the same time, I always feel so bad for these people suffering from other types of hep and they get maybe 1 or 2 responses...that must be disheartening to them, coming here scared and looking for answers...just my two cents for what it's worth....