Therapeutic efficacy of ursodeoxycholic acid for drug-induced liver disease

Objective To observe the clinical efficacy of ursodeoxycholic acid for recovering liver function in patients with drug-induced liver disease.Methods One-hundred-and-thirty patients with drug-induced liver disease were randomly assigned to a control treatment group (n=68) or an experimental treatment group (n=62) .The control group received the standard hepatinica therapy of diammonium glycyrrhizinate, reduced glutathione, and polyene phosphatidylcholine.The experimental group received ursodeoxycholic acid at 12-15 mg·kg-1·d-1 P.O.in three divided doses.The treatment course lasted for four weeks for both groups.Liver function was assessed by serum chemistry prior to treatment initiation, and two and four weeks after treatment completion.Results Liver function improved after treatment in both groups, but the ursodeoxycholic acid treatment group showed significantly more improvement than the standard treatment group (P<0.01) .Conclusion Ursodeoxycholic acid has beneficial therapeutic effect for resolving impaired liver function in drug-induced liver disease and may represent a superior treatment to the traditional hepatinica drugs.