Acute Idiosyncratic Drug-Induced Injury Can Lead to Chronic Liver Disease

Certain classes of drugs, such as cardiovascular and anti-infectious agents, as well as herbal remedies, can lead to chronic liver damage, including cirrhosis, in rare cases.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is an important problem, especially with recent increases in use of herbal remedies and dietary supplements. Typically, patients with acute injury will recover completely. However, registry studies have suggested that a few DILI patients develop chronic liver injury, which can lead to cirrhosis. Investigators in Spain evaluated a database of prospectively collected information on DILI patients and performed a case-control analysis to compare DILI patients with and without chronic injury.

Patients were considered to have chronic injury if liver-test results were persistently abnormal (longer than 3 months after drug withdrawal or longer than 6 months after cholestatic or mixed-type damage); these patients were…

Reviewing Author

Atif Zaman, MD, MPH

Acute Idiosyncratic Drug-Induced Injury Can Lead to Chronic Liver Disease

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Reviewing Author