Diabetic patients with abnormally high liver enzymes are not at increased risk for developing liver toxicity from treatment with Avandia (rosiglitazone), results of a study indicate. Avandia “can be safely used” in these patients, said Dr. Naga Chalasani who led the study.

Avandia belongs to a class of drugs called thiazolidinediones, which help lower blood sugar, or glucose, in people with Type 2 diabetes.

Although Avandia and a similar drug called Actos (pioglitazone) are generally very safe from a liver standpoint, isolated reports of liver toxicity have been reported. It is currently recommended that Avandia be used cautiously in diabetics with mild elevations in liver enzymes, Chalasani, from Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and colleagues point out in a report in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Chalasani’s team took a look back at the effects of Avandia on the livers of 210 diabetics who had elevated liver enzymes before they started the drug and in 628 diabetics with normal baseline liver enzymes.

Compared with diabetics with normal starting liver enzymes, those with elevated starting liver enzymes did not have a higher incidence of mild to moderate or severe elevations in liver enzymes, the investigators report.

This study, they conclude, provides “important information” about the safety of Avandia in diabetic patients with elevated liver enzymes.

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology June 2005.