ACG: Study Examines Causes of Drug-Induced Liver Injury

Antimicrobial and anticonvulsant drugs identified as common causes of liver injury

THURSDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Common prescription medications are responsible for most cases of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) and such an injury may become chronic in up to one-quarter of patients who have them, according to research presented this week at the 71st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology in Las Vegas.

Naga P. Chalasani, M.D., of Indiana University in Indianapolis, and colleagues analyzed data on 141 DILI patients from five clinical centers.

The researchers found that 75 percent of cases were caused by a single prescription medication, 21 percent were caused by a combination of prescription drugs and complementary/alternative medicine therapies, and 4 percent were caused by a single complementary/alternative medicine therapy. The most common classes of implicated drugs were antimicrobials (43 percent) and anticonvulsants (10 percent). During a six-month follow-up, 7 percent of subjects died and 23 percent exhibited chronic DILI.

"Our study represents an extensive and a systematic effort that is recruiting eligible patients with clinically important DILI in a robust fashion," Chalasani said in a statement. "Extensive clinical data and biosamples are available to conduct clinical and mechanistic ancillary studies including genetic analyses to identify risk factors and predictors of outcome."

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