BACKGROUND Obstetric cholestasis (OC) is a serious problem in pregnancy. It affects about 4500 women per year in the UK. Affected women develop itching and occasionally jaundice. More importantly, the condition is associated with premature delivery, fetal distress and is believed to be an important cause of stillbirth. However, even now, there is no clear evidence as to whether the most popular...

Citation: Stamp D. (2016). Proposed Use of Deoxycholic Acid (DCA) and Ursodeoxycholic Acid (UDCA) in a Treatment Regimen for Barrett’s Esophagus. M J Canc. 1(2): 007. INTRODUCTION Huo et al [1] first placed 250 uM of the hydrophobic bile acid (DCA) into the esophagus of patients with Barrett’s esophagus (BE) and left it there for 5 min. The DCA was dissolved in alcohol. Subsequent examination o...

In a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study including 217 patients with primary biliary cholangitis, the authors show that obeticholic acid (a potent farnesoid X agonist) administered with ursodeoxycholic acid or as monotherapy significantly decreases serum alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin when compared to placebo. Pruritus (and serious adverse effects) was observed more frequentl...

Cholesterol absorption was studied in mice receiving cholic, chenodeoxycholic, or ursodeoxycholic acids (0.2% of the diet) for 2 months. Cholesterol absorption was greater with cholic acid (79%) than with chenodeoxycholic acid feeding (60%) and the lowest levels were observed during ursodeoxycholic acid feeding (37%). Under the three diets, bile acid pool and bile acid secretion were not differ...

Microlithiasis is the underlying cause in a significant proportion of patients with "idiopathic" acute pancreatitis. The mechanism appears to be a relative deficiency of phosphatidylcholine in bile, with fast and extensive cholesterol crystallization as a result. Diagnosis of microlithiasis by microscopic detection of cholesterol crystals in bile is important and should lead to appropriate ther...

Important immune-mediated liver illnesses include autoimmunity hepatitis (AIH) and primary biliary cirrhosis. Typically, they are distinguished based on histological, biochemical, serological, clinical parameters. Diagnostic criteria for many conditions typically met by patients with autoimmune disease. The diagnosis of AIH/primary sclerosing cholangitis overlap is a mix biochemistry, autoantib...

In this study, a meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials that compared ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) monotherapy with therapies combining UDCA and corticosteroids was performed. We found that combination therapy with UDCA and corticosteroids was more effective than UDCA monotherapy for primary biliary cirrhosis-autoimmune hepatitis-overlap syndrome.

Complexation of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) with 2-hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPbetaCD) improves the water solubility and the dissolution rate of UDCA and may therefore increase its bioavailability. We compared the amount and the rate of biliary excretion of UDCA and biliary lipid secretion after a single oral administration of UDCA in 3 different pharmaceutical formulations [UDCA-HPbetaC...