Clinical efficacy of ursodesoxycholic acid for the treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis: a Meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective To investigate the clinical efficacy and safety of ursodesoxycholic acid (UCDA) for the treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). Methods Randomized control trials literatures related to the treatment of PBC with UDCA up to October 2016 were searched by computer from PubMed, Wanfang database and CNKI. The keywords were respectively ursodeoxycholic acid, ursodiol, primary biliary cirrhosis and random clinical trials both in Chinese and English. Clinical data including liver function indexes, clinical symptoms, incidence of adverse reactions and mortality were extracted and subjected to Meta-analysis. Heterogenous studies were analyzed using random effect model, and homogenous studies were analyzed using fixed effect model. Results A total of 863 patients in 8 literatures were included in this study. Meta-analysis indicated that UCDA could significantly improve the levels of ALT, AST, ALP, GGT and TB (SMD=-0.73, -0.87, -1.22, -1.58, -0.32; P 0.05) and decrease the liver transplantation rate, mortality and liver disease related-mortality (OR=0.50, 0.79, 0.75; P>0.05). Conclusions UCDA can significantly improve the liver function of the PBC patients. But it fails to prevent the progression of PBC to end-stage liver disease, prolong the survival of the patients or improve the clinical symptoms. Key words: Ursodeoxycholic acid; Liver cirrhosis, biliary; Meta-analysis