Use of ursodeoxycholic acid in patients with hypertransaminasemia

Submitted: 17 August 2013
Accepted: 21 September 2013
Published: 18 September 2014
Abstract Views: 1378
PDF: 959
HTML: 1171
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) is a hydrophilic bile acid deriving from 7β epimerization of primary bile compound chenodeoxycholic acid. It may have antioxidant, immunomodulatory, antifibrotic and cytoprotective effects, therefore it has been extensively used in the treatment of cholestatic chronic liver diseases (primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, cholestasis of pregnancy, etc.). Due to the effectiveness of UDCA in decreasing serum liver enzyme levels also in non-cholestatic patients with chronic liver damage of various etiologies, this bile acid is now extensively used in clinical practice in combination with standard therapies, or as alternative treatment. In this paper, after a review of the biochemistry and physiology of UDCA, we have analyzed available data from the international literature on the efficacy and safety of UDCA in patients with hypertransaminasemia due to non-cholestatic chronic liver diseases, such as chronic viral hepatitis B and C and liver steatosis, the three main causes of aminotransferase elevation in western countries.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Puoti, C., & Elmo, M. G. (2014). Use of ursodeoxycholic acid in patients with hypertransaminasemia. Italian Journal of Medicine, 8(3), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.4081/itjm.2014.426

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.