Revista Espanola de Enfermedades Digestivas (Sep 2018)

Efficacy and safety of fenofibrate add-on therapy for patients with primary biliary cholangitis and a suboptimal response to UDCA

  • Weijia Duan,
  • Xiaojuan Ou,
  • Xiaoming Wang,
  • Yu Wang,
  • Xinyan Zhao,
  • Qianyi Wang,
  • Xiaoning Wu,
  • Wei Zhang,
  • Hong Ma,
  • Hong You,
  • Jidong Jia

DOI
https://doi.org/10.17235/reed.2018.5533/2018
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 110, no. 9
pp. 557 – 563

Abstract

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ABSTRACT Background: primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) patients with a suboptimal response to ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) have a significantly worse survival rate. Fenofibrate has been shown to improve the short-term biochemical response in this group of patients. However, there is limited data available on the safety and efficacy of its long-term use, especially in patients with cirrhosis. Methods: in this retrospective cohort study, fenofibrate was given to PBC patients with a suboptimal response to at least 12 months of UDCA (13-15 mg/kg/d) therapy. Biochemistry data, GLOBE score and UK-PBC risk score at baseline and at different time points of treatment were compared. The safety profiles were also compared between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic patient groups. Results: fenofibrate (200 mg/day) was given to 39 PBC patients with a suboptimal response to UDCA (15 cirrhotic and 24 non-cirrhotic patients). In the 26 patients who completed more than one year of combination therapy, the alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels were 215 (185, 326) U/l, 122 (110, 202) U/l, 128 (106, 194) U/l, 124 (100, 181) U/l and 120 (82, 168) U/l, at baseline, three months, six months, 12 months and 24 months, respectively. All p values were < 0.01 when compared to baseline values. After two years of combination therapy, the UK-PBC risk score and GLOBE score did not significantly improve. The overall rates of adverse events were not significantly different between the cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic group. The elevation of liver enzymes was the most frequent side effect (n = 7), leading to a discontinuation in four patients. Furthermore, after two years of combination therapy, the serum creatinine levels and estimated glomerular filtration rates (eGFR) were significantly worse in both groups. Conclusion: fenofibrate add-on therapy could improve ALP and -GT levels in both non-cirrhotic and cirrhotic PBC patients with a suboptimal response to UDCA. However, patients need to be monitored carefully for a potential liver injury and nephrotoxicity.

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