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Primary biliary cirrhosis

Renaming primary biliary cirrhosis—clarity or confusion?

What is in a name; and why does the nomenclature of one disease, primary biliary cirrhosis, cause such contention that a proposed name change by those deeply committed to the advancement of its understanding and management stimulate huge debate?

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Figure 1: Development of liver cirrhosis as part of the natural history in PBC.

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Acknowledgements

P.J.T. has received funding from the NIHR Birmingham Liver Biomedical Research Unit and is in receipt of a Wellcome Trust funded Clinical Research Fellowship. G.M.H. has received funding from the NIHR Birmingham Liver Biomedical Research Unit and is a co-investigator for UK-PBC supported by a Stratified Medicine Award from the UK Medical Research Council. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the NIHR, or the Department of Health.

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Correspondence to Gideon M. Hirschfield.

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Trivedi, P., Hirschfield, G. Renaming primary biliary cirrhosis—clarity or confusion?. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 12, 678–679 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrgastro.2015.187

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