Influencing immune perturbations by prolonged corticotherapy in the chronic active liver disease.

This paper deals with the influencing of the imbalance of humoral and cellular immunity in chronic active liver disease (CALD) due to prolonged administration of continuous corticotherapy in moderate doses. This paper presents a controlled study carried out in 30 patients with CALD of whom 15 received corticotherapy, while the other 15 only a conventional hepatotropic treatment for a year. The results obtained show, beside a clinical and biological improvement, a positive influence on the immune parameters with a tendency of restoration of immune homeostasis, i.e., an increase of the T total and T1 (suppressing/cytotoxic) lymphocytes in the peripheral blood, with the concomitant decrease of IgG, IgM and circulating immune complexes (CIC). In the control group the changes were insignificant, but sometimes an aggravation of the immune disturbances could be observed. This study confirms the favourable effect of prolonged corticotherapy in CALD and argues for its immune-modulating action.