Primary biliary cholangitis: A historical perspective from xanthomatous lesions to modern molecular biology

Table 1 The morphological classification of stages of primary biliary cholangitis, adapted from Ludwig et al[38]

Ref.	Morphologic findings on biopsy
	Stage I	Stage II	Stage III	Stage IV
Scheuer[37]	Portal Portal hepatitis	Periportal Periportal hepatitis	Septal Bridging necrosis (passive septa) or septal fibrosis (active septa), or both	Cirrhosis
Popper and Schaffner[43]	Cholangitis Portal hepatitis with duct lesions	Ductular proliferation Same as stage II of Scheuer	Precirrhosis Same as stage III of Scheuer	Cirrhosis
Ludwig et al[38]	Florid duct lesion Portal hepatitis with duct lesions, or periportal hepatitis with duct lesions but without ductular proliferation	Ductular proliferation Periportal hepatitis (and bridging necrosis?), with ductular proliferation but without fibrosis	Scarring Septal fibrosis but absence of true regenerative nodules	Cirrhosis