レトロスペクティブな調査による経口分岐鎖アミノ酸製剤の有用性に影響を及ぼす因子の検討

抄録

Oral branched chain amino acid preparations consisting of three branched chain amino acids are used for the treatment of decompensated liver cirrhosis associated with hypoalbuminemia which occurs in spite of a sufficient intake in food. In order to evaluate the efficacy of oral branched chain amino acids, we investigated their effect in patients with liver cirrhosis, focusing on blood platelet levels. We analyzed the relationship between blood platelet counts and severity score, serum albumin concentration, total bilirubin concentration and prothrombin time.
Our subjects were 13 patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (1 female and 12 males, mean age 60.8 years). In patients with blood platelet counts of more than 10×104/μL, serum albumin concentration and severity score were significantly improved by the oral administration of branched chain amino acids. On the other hand, total bilirubin concentration and prothrombin time were not significantly changed by orally administered branched chain amino acids in patients with blood platelet counts of more than 10×104/μL and also when they were under 10×104/μL.
These results suggest that classifying patients based on blood platelet levels might be useful in evaluation of the efficacy of oral branched chain amino acids, and doing this in addition to working out severity scores would be valuable in ensuring the proper use of oral branched chain amino acids.