Hugan tablets for the treatment of RUCAM based drug-induced liver injury: a propensity score matching analysis using a nationwide database

BACKGROUND Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a major clinical challenge with no specific therapeutic drugs available. It is crucial to develop new agents to improve the clinical outcome of patients with DILI. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of Hugan tablets in DILI patients using a nationwide database. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We analyzed the clinical data of DILI patients from a nationwide DILI database (www.hepatox.org). Patients who received oral Hugan tablets for DILI were defined as the Hugan group, and those who received no treatment for DILI were defined as the control group. RESULTS There were 111 cases in the Hugan group and 512 cases in the control group. One-to-one propensity score matching created 111 matched pairs. The normalization rates of alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase in the Hugan group were significantly higher than those in the control group (50.45% vs. 26.13%, p ≤ .0002 and 67.57% vs. 41.75%, p ≤ .0001). There were no differences in the incidence of renal function impairment or blood abnormality between the two groups. CONCLUSIONS Hugan tablets are safe and effective in DILI treatment. Large-scale randomized controlled studies are needed to explore the effects of Hugan tablets on DILI induced by different offending drugs. TRIAL REGISTRATION The study protocol was posted on ClinicalTrials.gov with NCT number: NCT02407964.