The clinical features of primary sclerosing cholangitis were studied in 46 consecutive patients. Jaundice was the most common symptom (57%), followed by pruritus (28%), pain (24%), and fever (15%). Thirty-three per cent of the patients had no symptoms, merely laboratory changes. No significant relationship was observed between a numerical score of radiological bile duct changes at diagnosis and the clinical picture, or the clinical course during follow-up. If clinical deterioration occurred, this seemed to happen within the first eight years after the clinical presentation. Patients with only intra-hepatic bile duct changes (n = 10) did not differ clinically from those with extrahepatic changes as well. Forty-three out of 44 patients examined had inflammatory bowel disease, usually ulcerative colitis, with total colitis in 84%. Radiological bile duct changes had a significantly higher score in patients who had to be treated with a combination of sulfasalazine and steroids, suggesting a weak relationship between severity of bowel disease and bile duct disease.