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©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Clinical usefulness of ursodeoxycholic acid for Japanese patients with autoimmune hepatitis
Yuichi Torisu, Masanori Nakano, Keiko Takano, Ryo Nakagawa, Chisato Saeki, Atsushi Hokari, Tomohisa Ishikawa, Masayuki Saruta, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, the Jikei University School of Medicine, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan
Yuichi Torisu, Masanori Nakano, Department of Internal Medicine, Fuji City General Hospital, Shizuoka 417-8567, Japan
Mikio Zeniya, Department of Internal Medicine, Sanno Medical Center, Tokyo 107-0052, Japan
Author contributions: Torisu Y and Zeniya M designed the research; Torisu Y collected and analyzed the data; Nakano M, Takano K, Nakagawa R, Saeki C, Hokari A, Ishikawa T and Saruta M revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Torisu Y and Zeniya M wrote the paper; all authors have read and approved the final version to be published.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Jikei University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board; IRB Protocol No: 26-321(7827).
Informed consent statement: Written, informed consent for participation in this study was not obtained from the patients, because this study did not report on a clinical trial and the data were retrospective in nature and analyzed anonymously.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Yuichi Torisu, MD, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, the Jikei University School of Medicine, 3-25-8 Nishishinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8461, Japan. torisu@yb4.so-net.ne.jp
Telephone: +81-03-34331111 Fax: +81-03-34350569
Received: July 10, 2016
Peer-review started: July 14, 2016
First decision: September 12, 2016
Revised: September 25, 2016
Accepted: November 21, 2016
Article in press: November 22, 2016
Published online: January 8, 2017
Peer-review started: July 14, 2016
First decision: September 12, 2016
Revised: September 25, 2016
Accepted: November 21, 2016
Article in press: November 22, 2016
Published online: January 8, 2017
Core Tip
Core tip: Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is generally responsive to immunosuppressive treatment, and corticosteroids are commonly used for the initial and maintenance treatments. However, corticosteroid treatment must be discontinued in some patients because of several side effects. This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic effects of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which has high tolerability and no severe side effects, on AIH. Our results suggest that to prevent adverse events related to corticosteroids, treatment with UDCA alone for AIH needs to be considered in selected patients, especially those with an alanine aminotransferase level of 200 IU/L or lower. This utility of UDCA must be confirmed in a prospective study.