Pruritus is the most common dermatologic complaint in the geriatric population. Its growing prevalence coincides with the rapid growth of the elderly population (>65 years of age) in the United States. According to the US Census Bureau, 16.9% of the population, or more than 56 million adults 65 years and older, lived in the United States in 2022. Pruritus is a condition that accompanies a diverse array of underlying etiologic factors. The mechanism of normal itch impulse transmission has been recently elucidated. The itch sensation originates from epidermal/dermal receptors connected to unmyelinated, afferent C-fibers that transmit the impulse from the periphery.

Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic progressive cholestatic granulomatous, and destructive inflammatory lesion of small intralobular and septal bile ducts, which is likely to be caused by an autoimmune mechanism with a the presence of serum antimitochondrial antibodies and a potential tendency to progress to cirrhosis. Despite the fact that the etiology of this disease has been unknown so far, there has been a considerable body of scientific evidence that can reveal the clinical and laboratory signs of PBC and the individual components of its pathogenesis and elaborate diagnostic criteria for the disease and its symptomatic therapy. Deficiencies in autoimmune tolerance are critical factors for the initiation and perpetuation of the disease. The purpose of this review is to summarize the data available in the literature and the author's findings on clinical and laboratory criteria for the diagnosis of PBC. This review describes the major clinical manifestations of the disease and the mechanisms of its development. It presents the immunological, biochemical, and morphological signs of PBC and their significance for its diagnosis. A great deal of novel scientific evidence for the problem of PBC has been accumulated. However, the inadequate efficiency of therapy for the disease lends impetus to the quest for its etiological factors and to further investigations of its pathogenetic mechanisms and, on this basis, to searches for new methods for its early diagnosis.

Pruritus is a major symptom of primary biliary cirrhosis, cholestatic autoimmune disease which affects mostly middle-age women. Often, it can be severe and refractory to multiple treatments, and mostly affecting the patient's health-related quality of life. Intense pruritus can be itself an indication to liver transplantation, in extreme cases leading to suicide. Its physiopathology has not yet been fully elucidated, but recent studies added the elevation of autotaxin and lysophosphatidic acid to the group of classic mechanisms already linked to cholestatic pruritus. In this case report we illustrate how ultraviolet B phototherapy appears to successfully control severe pruritus and contribute to the healing of pruritic skin lesions caused by intense scratching. There is limited medical literature concerning this therapeutic approach on cholestatic pruritus, but we hope that further randomised controlled trials will successfully establish it as an effective treatment in the near future.