Primary biliary cirrhosis: report of a focus study group.

To provide a forum for discussion in specific areas of liver disease, the Clinical Research Committee of the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) conceived the Focus Study Group. The first Focus Study Group was organized by Nora V. Bergasa and Howard H. Worman. It was dedicated to primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and met on October 25th, 2003, during the AASLD annual meeting. The purpose of this symposium was to identify areas of research and to establish national and international collaborations to study PBC and its complications. The program was prepared from topics provided by investigators in the field, in response to questions posed by the organizers, and it was divided in three sections: pathogenesis, the study of fatigue, and treatment of PBC. An overview on the pathogenesis of PBCwas presented by Dr. Eric M. Gershwin (University of California at Davis, CA)1 and was followed by the presentations of invited speakers, all of whom are investigators in the field. In this report, abstracted presentations provided by the speakers and the salient points that evolved from the discussion sections are provided.