Acetaminophen-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Chronic Alcohol Abusers
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2005-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
It is widely believed that people who abuse alcohol can sustain a liver injury after taking
doses of acetaminophen just above the recommended maximum dose. This study is designed to
look at the interaction between acetaminophen, liver injury and alcohol abuse. Subjects will
undergo baseline tests to ensure that they do not have liver damage at the time of
enrollment. Each subject will be randomly assigned to receive either a therapeutic dose of
acetaminophen or a placebo three times a day for four days. Subjects will have blood work
drawn on a daily basis to monitor the status of the liver. These tests will include
conventional markers of liver injury in addition to a novel biomarker of liver function,
a-GST. Previous work in the investigators' group has shown that a-GST is a more sensitive
indicator of liver injury following acetaminophen overdose (Sivilotti 1999, Sivilotti 2002 x
2). However, it has never been used to study the alcoholic population. The investigators
believe that a-GST may detect a subclinical acetaminophen-induced liver injury that has
previously gone unrecognized in the alcoholic population.