Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) in active cirrhosis: Influence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) infection

Long‐term treatment of chronic hepatitis C with ursodeoxycholic acid: influence of HCV genotypes and severity of liver disease

“…Our results are in keeping with the reports by other groups on the favourable effect of UDCA in alcoholic hepatitis (25) and with our own data in patients with alcoholic cirrhosis with or without HCV infection (24,46). Moreover, we confirm previous observations on the worsening of liver function in the absence of any cytoprotective therapies in patients with cirrhosis (47,48), as well as a marked improvement of the indices of liver dysfunction in HCV+ve patients treated with UDCA in comparison with untreated controls (26,31).…”

“…The same pattern of results was observed for ALT levels, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. UDCA for chronic hepatitis C liver enzymes in these patients (24,49) while others found no differences between HCV+ve and HCV-ve patients (29). Moreover, a recent open multicenter Italian trial including 41 3 patients with chronic hepatitis (58% of whom were anti-HCV+ve) showed that a 6-month UDCA treatment was able to improve LFTs significantly (50).…”

“…Other mechanisms such as reduction of cytosolic Ca++ (21), stimulation of hepatocyte regeneration (22) and antioxidant effects (23) are still under investigation. The efficacy of UDCA has also been reported in patients with non-cholestatic CLD although evaluation of efficacy is mostly based on relatively short periods of observation (24)(25)(26). Besides, it is still unclear whether the severity as well as the aetiology of CLD may influence the response to UDCA (25,(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32).…”

Alcoholic liver disease

“…В исследованиях, посвященных анализу эффективности УДХК при АБП, было показано, что применение УДХК приводит к улучшению пока-зателей функции печени, в частности печеночных ферментов и билирубина [23,[32][33][34]. Описан положительный клинический эффект УДХК у пациентов с хроническим гепатитом алкогольной этиологии, проявляющийся уменьшением выраженности астенического и диспептического синдромов, кожного зуда, снижением активности АЛТ, АСТ, ГГТП, щелочной фосфатазы и содержания общего билирубина в сыворотке крови [35].…”

Use of ursodeoxycholic acid in liver diseases

“…Initial uncontrolled and controlled trials have reported significant improvement of biochemical parameters in UDCA‐treated patients with chronic hepatitis 142–144 . These studies were mostly done before hepatitis C antibody testing was readily available.…”