Reumatizam, Vol. 73 No. Supp 1, 2026.
Review article
https://doi.org/10.33004/reumatizam-supp-73-1-1
FROM LIVER TO JOINTS: WHERE HEPATOLOGY MEETS RHEUMATOLOGY
Sandra Milić
*
* Corresponding author.
Abstract
Liver diseases represent an important, but often under-recognized comorbidity in patients with systemic rheumatic
diseases. The connection between rheumatology and hepatology is multifaceted and includes shared immunopathogenetic mechanisms, a higher incidence of autoimmune liver diseases in certain rheumatic diseases, liver involvement in systemic autoimmune diseases, viral hepatitis with rheumatological manifestations, and hepatotoxicity of antirheumatic and immunosuppressive drugs. A special clinical problem is the patient with elevated liver findings during immunosuppressive treatment, in which the activity of the underlying disease, autoimmune liver disease, viral hepatitis, metabolically related steatotic liver disease, and drug-induced liver damage should be distinguished. In patients starting biological or targeted synthetic therapy, it is necessary to timely recognize chronic or previously recovered hepatitis B virus infection due to the possibility of reactivation, while hepatitis C may be associated with arthritis, sicca symptoms, and cryoglobulinemic vasculitis. A modern approach requires individualized risk assessment and close collaboration between rheumatologists and hepatologists. The aim of this review is to present the most important clinical links between rheumatology and hepatology and to offer a practical approach to the diagnosis and treatment of patients with overlapping rheumatic and liver diseases.
Keywords
Rheumatic diseases; autoimmune hepatitis; primary biliary cholangitis; viral hepatitis; hepatotoxicity
Hrčak ID:
352625
URI
Publication date:
21.10.2026.
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