Guest editor’s introduction: cholangiopathies: review and update

Excerpt

The definitions of cholangiopathy range from broad to quite narrow. In its broadest and most generic sense, cholangiopathy is defined as any disease of the bile ducts. In contrast, cholangiopathy may be defined in more specific terms such as a category of chronic, progressive liver diseases that share a central target, the cholangiocyte, and lead to end-stage liver disease [1]. To further complicate matters, cholangiopathies include both neoplastic entities such as cholangiocarcinoma and non-neoplastic entities that range from the relatively common to the obscure. To simplify and focus this potentially wide-ranging discussion, I have chosen to concentrate on the non-neoplastic biliary entities that are most commonly encountered in clinical practice. To this end, this feature section includes review articles authored by well-known experts addressing autoimmune diseases; overlap syndromes; iatrogenic and traumatic injuries of the bile ducts; recurrent pyogenic cholangitis; portal cholangiopathy; and congenital and acquired diseases of the pediatric biliary tract and gallbladder. Given that the imaging evaluation of biliary diseases has changed dramatically over the past two decades due to advances in MR/MRCP, CT, and sonography, an update on appropriate imaging strategies is offered in each review article as appropriate. …