Useful in the diagnosis of autoimmune hepatitis (AIH).The detection of antinuclear antibodies and/or antismooth muscle antibodies is the hallmark for type 1 AIH. The target antigen of the smooth muscle antibody as it pertains to type 1 AIH is F-actin (filamentous-actin). Definitive diagnosis of AIH should be based on the correlation of all available clinical, biochemical, and liver biopsy information.
Anti-Actin Antibodies are found in 52-85% of patients with AIH or chronic active hepatitis and in 22% of people with primary biliary cirrhosis.