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. 2017 May;13(5):2375-2381.
doi: 10.3892/etm.2017.4256. Epub 2017 Mar 23.

Pharmacological management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Atorvastatin versus pentoxifylline

Ramona Cioboată  1 , Alice Găman  2 , Diana Traşcă  1 , Anca Ungureanu  2 , Anca Oana Docea  3 , Paul Tomescu  4 , Florin Gherghina  5 , Andreea Letitia Arsene  6 , Corin Badiu  7 , Aristides M Tsatsakis  8 , Demetrios A Spandidos  9 , Nikolaos Drakoulis  10 , Daniela Călina  11
Affiliations

Pharmacological management of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Atorvastatin versus pentoxifylline

Ramona Cioboată et al. Exp Ther Med. 2017 May.

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy of pentoxifylline and atorvastatin in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The study included 98 patients with histologically confirmed NAFLD divided into 2 groups as follows: group I (57 dyslipidemic patients, receiving atorvastatin 20 mg/day and group II (41 non-dyslipidemic patients, treated with pentoxifylline, 800 mg/day). The present study was conducted for a mean of 32.8±3.4 weeks. For all patients, we determined the body mass index, a liver biopsy was performed, and we measured the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TG) at the beginning and at the end of the study period. The NAFLD activity score (NAS) was used to evaluate the liver biopsies for steatosis, fibrosis and necroinflammation. The patients in group I exhibited a considerable reduction in ALT, AST, GGT, TC, AP and TG levels (P<0.0001). Histologically, there were no changes in fibrosis and necroinflammation, although the extent steatosis was reduced. The improvement in the ALT, AST and GGT values (P<0.05) in group II were similar to those in group I; however, no statistically significant decrease was noted in the levels of ALP, TC and TG in this group. Our results thus demonstrated that atorvastatin attenuated steatosis and improved liver function parameters in patients with NAFLD associated with dyslipidemia. Similar results were obtained in the non-dyslipidemic patients administered pentoxifylline.

Keywords: atorvastatin; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; pentoxifylline.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Variation of biochemical parameters T0-T3. (A) Total cholesterol (TC); (B) aspartate aminotransferase (AST); (C) alanine aminotransferase (ALT); (D) gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT); (E) alkaline phosphatase (ALP); F glucose (G) and (G) triglycerides (TG).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Mean values for NAS scores at T0 and T3 for (A) group I and (B) group II. NAS, NAFLD activity score. HS, highly significant; S, significant.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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