Drug-Induced Liver Disease
Medical Author: Dennis Lee, MD
Medical Editor:
Jay W. Marks, MD
What is drug-induced liver disease?
Drug-induced liver diseases are diseases of the liver
that are caused by physician-prescribed medications, over-the-counter
medications, vitamins,
hormones, herbs, illicit ("recreational") drugs, and environmental toxins.
What is the liver?
The liver is an organ that is located in the upper right
hand side of the abdomen, mostly behind the
rib cage. The liver of an adult normally weighs close
to three pounds and has many functions.
- The liver produces and secretes bile into the
intestine where the bile
assists with the digestion of dietary fat.
- The liver helps purify the blood by changing potentially harmful chemicals
into harmless ones. The sources of these chemicals can be outside the body (for
example, medications or alcohol), or inside the body (for example, ammonia,
which is produced from the break-up of proteins; or bilirubin, which is produced
from the break-up of hemoglobin).
- The liver removes chemicals from the blood (usually changing them into
harmless chemicals) and then either secretes them with the bile for elimination
in the stool, or secretes them back into the blood where they then are removed
by the kidneys and eliminated in the urine.
- The liver produces many important substances,
especially proteins that are necessary for good health. For example, it produces albumin, the protein
building-block of the body, as well as the proteins that cause blood to clot
properly.
When drugs injure the liver and disrupt its normal
function, symptoms, signs, and abnormal blood tests of liver disease develop.
Abnormalities of drug-induced liver diseases are similar to those of liver
diseases caused by other agents such as viruses and immunologic diseases. For
example, drug-induced hepatitis (inflammation of the liver cells) is similar to
viral hepatitis; they both can cause elevations in blood levels of aspartate
amino transferase (AST) and
alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
(enzymes that leak from the injured liver and into
the blood) as well as anorexia (loss of appetite),
fatigue, and nausea. Drug-induced
cholestasis (interference with the flow of bile that is caused by injury to the
bile ducts) can mimic the cholestasis of autoimmune liver disease (e.g.,
primary
biliary cirrhosis or PBC) and can lead to elevations in blood levels of
bilirubin (causing jaundice), alkaline phosphatase
(an enzyme that is
leaked from injured bile ducts), and itching.
Next: What are the symptoms of liver disease? »
- Liver Blood Tests - Learn about liver blood tests used to detect liver damage disease such as fatty liver, cirrhosis, hepatitis, Tylenol liver damage, and more. This includes measuring the aminotransferases enzymes (AST and ALT levels)
- Abdominal Pain - Learn about abdominal pain (pain in the stomach / abdomen) including causes, symptoms, how abdominal pain is diagnosed, and how abdominal pain is treated.
- CT Scan (Computerized Axial Tomography) - CT Scan (Computerized Axial Tomography, CAT scan) is a procedure that assists in diagnosing tumors, fractures, bony structures, and infections in the organs and tissues of the body.
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