Stefania’s story. “A routine blood draw and I found that the liver was sick”

One day, in 2012, Stefania had gone to have a blood sample because she had been having pain in her hands for months and a rheumatologist specialist had recommended some tests to find a possible arthrosis. When he went to collect the reports, on the sheets he saw that the laboratory had carried out extensive research and highlighted the presence of “M2 antimitochondrial antibodies”, typical indicators of CPB (or PBC), that is, of “primitive biliary cholangitis”, a rare autoimmune disease of the liver which, if not treated immediately and adequately, causes a progressive cirrhosis.