The Efficacy Of α-glycyrrhizic Acid In Treatment Of Mild Autoimmune Hepatitis

BackgroundAutoimmune hepatitis is one of autoimmune diseases that liver as the relativelyspecific immune pathological injury organ.Immunosuppressive regimens is thestandard in treatment and there are some strict indications for it.The indicators ofmild autoimmune hepatitis can not meet the indications.There are not a unifiedtherapeutic schedule for mild autoimmune hepatitis by now.Considering theimmunosuppressive therapy has more adverse reactions, it is necessary to find drugswith high effect and security.In recent years,there are many reports about theefficacy of α-glycyrrhizic acid in viral hepatitis, fatty liver disease and drug-inducedliver injury,but it is less in mild autoimmune hepatitis.ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy of α-glycyrrhizic acid(α-GL) in treatment of mildautoimmune hepatitis.MethodsA total number of98patients with mild AIH were enrolled into the study in ourhospital between September2008and October2012. The patients were divided randomly into two groups:the treatment group and the control group with49patients in each group. Patients in the treatment group received MagnesiumIsoglycyrrhizinate Injection for3weeks and Diammonium GlycyrrhizinateEnteric-coated Capsules for1year. Patients in the control group received CompoundGlycyrrhizin Injection for3weeks and its Tablets for1year. The liver function andimmunological indexes were record after treated for3,6,12months,and the adversereactions were observed in the treatment. The liver histology were observed aftertreated for12months. All experimental data were processed with SPSS version17.0statistical software. Quantitative data were analyzed by Repeated MeasurementANOVA.Count data were analyzed by rank sum test andx2test.Results1.Alanine aminotransferase(ALT),aspartate aminotransferase(AST),globulin(GLOB), IgG,γ globulin and CRP in the two groups decreased with statisticalsignificance(P<0.05).C3and C4increased in the two groups with statisticalsignificance(P<0.05).2.The improvement of these indexes in the treatment group is better than that inthe control group with statistical significance (P<0.05).3.The effective rate was significantly higher in the treatment group than in thecontrol group(82.9%vs61.0%,P<0.05).4.The occurrence rate of adverse reaction was significantly lower in thetreatment group than in the control group(4.08%vs16.3%,P<0.05).ConclusionsBoth α-GL and β-GL have a significant effect on controlling the inflammationactivity of mild AIH, and α-GL is more effective and safer than β-GL.