• Inmaculada Medina-Caliz, Miren Garcia-Cortes, Andres Gonzalez-Jimenez, Maria R Cabello, Mercedes Robles-Diaz, Judith Sanabria-Cabrera, Rocio Sanjuan-Jimenez, Aida Ortega-Alonso, Beatriz García-Muñoz, Inmaculada Moreno, Miguel Jimenez-Perez, M Carmen Fernandez, Pere Ginés, Martin Prieto, Isabel Conde, Hacibe Hallal, German Soriano, Eva Roman, Agustin Castiella, Encarnacion Blanco-Reina, Maria R Montes, Marta Quiros-Cano, Flores Martin-Reyes, M Isabel Lucena, Raul J Andrade, and Spanish DILI Registry.
• Unidad de Gestión Clínica de Aparato Digestivo, Servicio de Farmacología Clínica, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga, Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, Universidad de Málaga, CIBERehd, Málaga, Spain.
• Clin. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2018 Sep 1; 16 (9): 1495-1502.

Background & AimsThere have been increasing reports of liver injury associated with use of herbal and dietary supplements, likely due to easy access to these products and beliefs among consumers that they are safer or more effective than conventional medications. We aimed to evaluate clinical features and outcomes of patients with herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injuries included in the Spanish DILI Registry.MethodsWe collected and analyzed data on demographic and clinical features, along with biochemical parameters, of 32 patients with herbal and dietary supplement-associated liver injury reported to the Spanish DILI registry from 1994 through 2016. We used analysis of variance to compare these data with those from cases of liver injury induced by conventional drugs or anabolic androgenic steroid-containing products.ResultsHerbal and dietary supplements were responsible for 4% (32 cases) of the 856 DILI cases in the registry; 20 cases of DILI (2%) were caused by anabolic androgenic steroids. Patients with herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injury were a mean age of 48 years and 63% were female; they presented a mean level of alanine aminotransferase 37-fold the upper limit of normal, 28% had hypersensitivity features, and 78% had jaundice. Herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injury progressed to acute liver failure in 6% of patients, compared with none of the cases of anabolic androgenic steroid-induced injury and 4% of cases of conventional drugs. Liver injury after repeat exposure to the same product that caused the first DILI episode occurred in 9% of patients with herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injury vs none of the patients with anabolic androgenic steroid-induced injury and 6% of patients with liver injury from conventional drugs.ConclusionIn an analysis of cases of herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injury in Spain, we found cases to be more frequent among young women than older patients or men, and to associate with hepatocellular injury and high levels of transaminases. Herbal and dietary supplement-induced liver injury is more severe than other types of DILI and re-exposure is more likely. Increasing awareness of the hepatoxic effects of herbal and dietary supplements could help physicians make earlier diagnoses and reduce the risk of serious liver damage.Copyright © 2018 AGA Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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