Pathological staging systems of primary biliary cholangitis / 临床肝胆病杂志

Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) is a chronic autoimmune liver disease accompanied by cholestasis, with the histological feature of non-purulent cholangitis. This article briefly describes the advantages and limitations of the traditional pathological staging systems such as Rubin stage, Scheuer stage, and Ludwig stage and the latest Nakanuma stage. Among them, Nakanuma stage refines the histological grading and staging standards to reduce the chance of missed diagnosis due to sampling errors, thus providing more adequate diagnostic and prognostic information for the clinic. A combination of new and traditional staging systems can provide guidance to the diagnosis, treatment, and research of PBC.