Fatty liver and drugs

A. Grieco, A. Forgione, L. Miele, V. Vero, A.V. Greco, A. Gasbarrini, G. Gasbarrini

Department of Internal Medicine, Catholic Untiversity of the Sacred Heart – Rome (Italy)

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• Gastroenterology

Drug-induced liver diseases (DILD) are clinico-pathologic patterns of liver injury caused by drugs or other foreign compounds. Steatohepatitis is a rare form of DILD, and drugs account for fewer than 2% of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Drugs known to be capable of inducing steatosis and steatohepatitis can be divided into three broad groups: those that cause steatosis and steatohepatitis independently (e.g., amiodarone, perhexiline maleate); drugs which can precipitate latent NASH (e.g., tamoxifen); drugs which induce sporadic events of steatosis/steatohepatitis (e.g., carbamazepine). Clinical DILD syndromes include acute viral hepatitis-like injury, acute liver failure, cholestatic hepatitis, liver disease with signs of hypersensitivity, autoimmune hepatitis-like injury, acute venous-outflow obstruction, chronic cholestasis, cirrhosis, steatosis and steatohepatitis. The clinical picture is by no means dependent on the mechanism of injury (direct hepatotoxicity, idiosyncratic reactions, hypersensitivity reactions). Reliable diagnosis of drug-induced liver disease requires demonstration of close correlation between the patient history and clinical, laboratory, and histological data.

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