A 50-year-old woman presents with jaundice, pruritus, and dark urine. She is initially thought to have viral hepatitis, but her hepatitis panel is negative. What could be the diagnosis?
While the symptoms initially suggest viral hepatitis, the negative hepatitis panel indicates another cause. One possible diagnosis is primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), a chronic disease that causes the bile ducts in the liver to become inflamed and damaged and ultimately disappear. Diagnosis typically involves the detection of anti-mitochondrial antibodies (AMA) in the blood.