CONTACT US: Contact info
|
Citation |
James LP, Gill P, Simpson P. Expert Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 2013; 7(6): 509-512. |
|
Affiliation |
Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute, Little Rock, AR, USA. |
|
Copyright |
(Copyright © 2013, Expert Reviews) |
|
DOI |
|
PMID |
23984999 |
|
Abstract |
Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is a very common cause of drug overdose and acute liver failure in the US and Europe. Mechanism-based biomarkers of APAP toxicity have the potential to improve the clinical management of patients with large-dose ingestions of APAP. The current approach to the management of APAP toxicity is limited by imprecise and time-constrained risk assessments and late-stage markers of liver injury. A recent study of 'low-risk' APAP overdose patients who all received treatment with N-acetylcysteine found that cell death biomarkers were more sensitive than alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and APAP concentrations in predicting the development of acute liver injury. The data suggest a potential role for new biomarkers to identify 'low-risk' patients following APAP overdose. However, a practical and ethical consideration that complicates predictive biomarker research in this area is the clinical need to deliver antidote treatment within 10 h of APAP overdose. The treatment effect and time-dependent nature of N-acetylcysteine treatment must be considered in future 'predictive' toxicology studies of APAP-induced liver injury. Language: en |