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FYI: diabetics on this board

alledanalledan Member Posts: 19,541
edited April 2003 in General Discussion
Liver Injury from Diabetic Medications
OAKLAND, Calif. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A new study links the use of diabetic medications with an increased risk of acute liver injury or failure.

Medical literature regularly reports on cases of drug-induced liver injury. Doctors are asked to report any suspected cases to manufacturers or regulatory authorities to assist in the evaluation of medication safety after FDA approval. One diabetes medication, troglitazone, was withdrawn from the market in both the United States and the United Kingdom after case reports suggested it causes liver damage. Since diabetes itself can cause liver problems, larger studies are needed to accurately assess the risk of medications used to treat the disease.

In this study, researchers reviewed medical records from about 171,000 patients age 19 and older when they first received oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin to control their diabetes. The analysis identified 26 cases of acute liver failure and 9 cases of acute liver injury that could not be clearly attributed to a known cause other than use of the diabetes medications. Twenty-seven additional cases, however, had a possible alternative cause, including exposure to hepatotoxic drugs. Just one of the cases had no apparent cause other than the use of the hypoglycemic agent, and that patient was on tolazamide. Eight of the patients died during hospitalization.

The incidence of toxic events was similar for the various medications in the study, and individuals with other chronic diseases besides diabetes were at higher risk of developing complications. The authors write, "Acute liver failure or injury not clearly attributable to other known causes occurred on the order of 1 per 10,000 person-years among diabetic patients treated with oral hypoglycemic drugs or insulin."

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, who offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, go to: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.



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Comments

  • n/an/a Member Posts: 168,427
    edited November -1
    This is nothing new..... Medical reports which are not available to the layperson have reported incidents like this for years....You wouldnt believe the drugs that cause liver damage, heart damage, kidney damage and death......
    Most drugs hit the market without enough testing....sure they do short term..but they rarely test for damage from long term use......
    If more people could get the medical reports that we (medical) do... well lets just say holy he** would hit........

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  • bartobarto Member Posts: 4,734 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Ibuprophen comes to mind, if you use it like aspirin. Not good for the 'ol liver.
    [xx(][xx(]barto

    I didn't do it and I got witnesses!!
  • bhayes420bhayes420 Member Posts: 1,314 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Like BR said...nothing new. They did pull one diabetes drug off the market a few years ago for causing liver failure in some patients. For the life of me, can't recall the name of it, but I was taking it. And it was one of the few oral meds that worked for me! My endocrinologist hit the nail on the head about it. Told me that it isn't the drugs fault, but the insurance companies and the doctors. Ins. companies won't pay for the very basic liver toxology screen, and doctors won't push 'em hard enough. My doc gave me the screem for free every 4 months while I was on that particular drug. Said that rising levels of something (can't remember what) would signal that he needed to take me off that particular med. I love my doc! Maybe the drug was Rezulin? Guess I am getting old.

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  • AlpineAlpine Member Posts: 15,041 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I am a Type 2 diabetic. Every thirty days I go in for blood work so they can check for liver damage. I was told upfront that the drug I was taking could have liver damage as a side effect. One thing working in my favor is that I do not drink, and haven't for over 15 years. I have also cut down on my usage of Ibuprophen for knee pain, to keep the stress off the liver.

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