Efficacy of long term cyclic administration of the poorly absorbed antibiotic Rifaximin in symptomatic, uncomplicated colonic diverticular disease

Table 4 Mean value of biochemical parameters before and at the end of treatment period

	Rifaximin plus fibers		P	Fibers		P
	Baseline	at 24 mo		Baseline	at 24 mo
ESR (mm/h)	24.8 ± 18.2	15.2 ± 14.4	< 0.001	23.2 ± 18.6	17.8 ± 15.3	< 0.05
Leukocytes (mm3)	8330.3 ± 2554.4	6515.8 ± 1393.9	< 0.001	7944.9 ± 2091.4	6918.5 ± 1719.8	< 0.01
Neutrophils (mm3)	67.8 ± 12.3	62.0 ± 10.9	< 0.005	68.9 ± 9.9	65.5 ± 8.7	< 0.03
Creatininemia (mg/dL)	0.98 ± 0.25	0.96 ± 0.21	NS	0.98 ± 0.19	0.94 ± 0.17	NS
Blood nitrogen (mg/dL)	39.4 ± 13.0	37.7 ± 10.6	NS	37.1 ± 11.3	33.7 ± 9.9	< 0.05
Blood sodium (nmol/L)	138.8 ± 5.0	140.0 ± 5.1	< 0.05	139.2 ± 5.2	139.1 ± 6.5	NS
Potassemia (nmol/L)	4.22 ± 0.45	4.21 ± 0.46	NS	4.20 ± 0.37	4.18 ± 0.30	NS
AST (IU/L)	23.2 ± 15.1	21.3 ± 12.7	NS	22.5 ± 11.1	20.8 ± 10.5	NS
ALT (U/L)	23.9 ± 14.6	21.8 ± 11.6	NS	22.7 ± 14.4	19.1 ± 8.8	< 0.05
AP (U/L)	147.3 ± 63.2	164.3 ± 65.6	< 0.05	140.6 ± 69.3	149.1 ± 62.4	NS
γGT (U/L)	33.0 ± 24.1	36.6 ± 24.3	NS	35.4 ± 27.3	30.2 ± 18.4	NS
Total proteins (g/dL)	6.85 ± 0.57	6.89 ± 0.58	NS	6.90 ± 0.44	6.78 ± 0.89	NS

t test for paired data, corrected for multiple comparison.