Two cases report of febuxostat-induced acute liver injury: acute heart failure as a probable risk factor?

Abstract

Drug induced liver injury, as a sub-type of hepatotoxicity, is rare but practical problem, producing challenges for clinicians. Within the recent two months, two patients with heart failure develop febuxostat-induced acute liver injury during hospital stay. To the best of our knowledge, very few cases of febuxostat-induced hepatotoxicity have been reported up to now. In this paper, two unusual cases of febuxostat-induced acute liver injury are herein described. The medical history, drug treatment, clinical symptoms, liver function tests, diagnosis and prognosis are fully given in this paper. It should be noticed that, two liver injury happen in patients of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Whether heart failure is a risk factor of febuxostat related liver injury, deserves further research. This paper reminds the clinicians that more attention should be paid to the acute liver injury caused by febuxostat, and liver function tests are suggested especially for patients of heart failure.

Keywords:

• Febuxostat
• drug induced liver injury
• heart failure
• hyperuricemia

Author contributions

BZ contributed to the literature search, case analysis, and the drafting of manuscript. BL and GT were the attending doctor of two patients, and made the diagnosis of liver injury. BL was responsible for the project administration and funding acquisition. PJ and DL contributed to the proofreading and revision of this manuscript. DL is the guarantor of this work and takes responsibility for the truth of cases. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Beijing Hospital Research Funding BJ-2019-159.