Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy: Is a screening for differential diagnoses necessary?

Objective: To evaluate the benefit of performing a screening for differential diagnoses by hepatobiliary ultrasound and viral serologies, in case of suspected intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP).

Methods: Retrospective single-center study in a tertiary maternity unit, including all women with a suspected ICP between January 2012 and September 2018. The primary outcome was the differential diagnosis rate obtained through initial screening. We described women characteristics, symptoms, and blood results that led to ICP suspicion. We evaluated the rate of differential diagnosis established by the initial screening. We described the population of women presenting with an ICP differential diagnosis.

Results: The study included 254 women. Prevalence of differential diagnosis was 2 %. ICP was suspected in more than 50 % of cases in third trimester of pregnancy (79.5 %). Women presented with pruritus in 90.9 % of cases. Bile acid levels were between 20 and 40 μmol/L in 56.3 % of cases and above 40 μmol/L in 12.2 % of cases. The screening to rule out differential diagnosis of ICP was performed in half of the cases. When performed, the screening did not lead to the diagnosis of any differential disease.

Conclusion: In this cohort, among the 254 women, one (0.4 %) would have been wrongly diagnosed with ICP if the initial screening for differential diagnosis had not been performed. Screening for differential diagnosis does not seem to provide any benefit regarding the management of suspected ICP and could therefore only be performed in case of atypical clinical presentation of ICP, resistance to treatment or persisting abnormal liver function tests in the postpartum period.