Ursodeoxycholic acid in primary biliary cirrhosis: Reply

We thank Dr. Tsochatzis et al. for their comments. In the EASL Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG), we discussed in detail relevant data available to provide a balanced discussion of the pro’s and con’s of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) treatment in primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) [1]. Tsochatzis et al. address the difficulty of finding a long-term benefit of medical treatment particularly in patients in the early stages of a slowly progressive disease which usually has a course of up to two decades [1,2].