Propylthiouracil for alcoholic liver disease (Cochrane Review)

A substantive amendment to this systematic review was last made on 21 July 2001. Cochrane reviews are regularly checked and updated if necessary.

Background: Alcohol is the most common cause of liver disease in the Western world today. Randomised clinical trials have addressed the question whether propylthiouracil has any efficacy in patients with alcoholic liver disease.

Objectives: The objectives were to assess the efficacy of propylthiouracil on mortality, clinical symptoms and complications, liver biochemistry, and liver histology in patients with alcoholic liver disease. Adverse events were also analysed.

Search strategy: The Cochrane Hepato-Biliary Group Controlled Trials Register (searched July 2001), The Cochrane Controlled Trials Register (Cochrane Library Issue 3, 2001), MEDLINE (January 1966 to July 2001), EMBASE (January 1985 to July 2001) were searched. These electronic searches were combined with full text searches. Manufacturers and researchers in the field were also contacted.

Selection criteria: Randomised clinical trials studying patients with alcoholic steatosis, alcoholic fibrosis, alcoholic hepatitis, and/or alcoholic cirrhosis were included. Interventions encompassed propylthiouracil at any dose versus placebo or no intervention. The trials could be double-blind, single-blind, or unblinded. The trials could be unpublished or published as an article, an abstract, or a letter and no language limitations were applied.

Data collection and analysis: All analyses were performed according to the intention-to-treat method. The statistical package (RevMan and MetaView) provided by the Cochrane Collaboration was used. The methodological quality of the randomised clinical trials was evaluated by components of quality and the Jadad-scale.

Main results: Combining the results of six randomised clinical trials including 710 patients demonstrated no significant effects of propylthiouracil versus placebo on mortality (Peto odds ratio (OR) 0.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.59 to 1.40), liver related mortality (OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.45 to 1.33), complications of the liver disease (OR 1.14, 95% CI 0.58 to 2.24), or liver histology. Propylthiouracil was associated with a non significant trend towards an increased risk of non-serious adverse events (OR 1.49, 95% CI 0.74 to 2.99) and with the seldom occurrence of serious adverse events (leukopenia).

Reviewers' conclusions: This systematic review could not demonstrate any significant efficacy of propylthiouracil on any clinically important outcomes (mortality, liver related mortality, liver complications, and liver histology) of patients with alcoholic liver disease and propylthiouracil was associated with adverse events. Accordingly, there is no evidence for using propylthiouracil for alcoholic liver disease outside randomised clinical trials.

Citation: Rambaldi A, Gluud C. Propylthiouracil for alcoholic liver disease (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library, Issue 3, 2003. Oxford: Update Software.

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This is an abstract of a regularly updated, systematic review prepared and maintained by the Cochrane Collaboration. The full text of the review is available in The Cochrane Library (ISSN 1464-780X).

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