Risk Factors for Drug-Induced Liver Injury ID’d in Hospitalized Patients

WEDNESDAY, May 12, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) has an incidence of 0.32 percent among hospitalized patients, and risk factors include hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, preexisting liver disease, and surgical history, according to a study published online May 5 in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Xianghao Kong, M.D., from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, and colleagues extracted data from patients hospitalized in 2019 using the Adverse Drug Events Active Surveillance and Assessment System-2. A retrospective case-control study was conducted to determine the incidence of DILI and identify risk factors.

The researchers confirmed 480 patients (499 cases) with DILI among 156,570 hospitalized patients, with an incidence of DILI of 0.32 percent. The major categories of drugs causing DILI were anti-infective agents, antineoplastic agents, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; the incidence of DILI was highest due to voriconazole. There were relatively long latency periods and hospital stays for patients with cholestasis. The risk for DILI was increased for patients with hyperlipidemia, cardiovascular disease, preexisting liver disease, and surgical history (adjusted odds ratios, 1.884, 1.465, 1.827, and 1.312, respectively).

“It is recommended that first-line medical staff pay attention to the liver enzymes of patients with preexisting liver disease and intervene in time to prevent the progression of DILI,” the authors write.

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