Comparison of the effect of BCAA granules on between decompensated and compensated cirrhosis.
OBJECTIVE
We designed a randomized trial to examine whether increase or preservation of serum albumin levels was attained with administration of branched-chain amino acid (BCAA) granules for compensated cirrhosis, compared with decompensated cirrhosis.


METHODS
Sixty-five patients with HCV-related cirrhosis with serum albumin level less than 4.0 g/dl were enrolled in this study. Half of the patients were randomly assigned to receive 14.22 g/day of BCAA granules orally, and half were assigned to a control group. Patients were evaluated at entry and at 1-year intervals for at least 2 years. The parameters were divided into 3 categories. Class 1 was decompensated cirrhosis with serum albumin level less than 3.5 mg/dl. Class 2 was compensated cirrhosis with serum albumin level over 3.6 mg/dl and molar ratio of BCAA to tyrosine (BTR) less than 4. Class 3 was compensated cirrhosis with serum albumin level over 3.6 mg/dl and BTR over 4.


RESULTS
In class 1 and class 2, the BCAA group exhibited significantly higher rates of maintaining serum albumin level than the control group for 2 years. In contrast, there was no significant difference between the BCAA group and control group in rate of maintaining serum albumin levels in class 3.


CONCLUSIONS
Those results suggested that if cirrhotic patients were in the compensated stage at the entry but with lower BTR, as for decompensated cirrhosis, oral BCAA supplementation might be effective in maintaining serum albumin level for 2 years.
Habu
Daiki
D
Department of Hepatology, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka City University Medical School, 1-4-3 Asahimachi, Abeno-ku, Osaka 545-8585, Japan. daiki@med.osaka-cu.ac.jp
Nishiguchi
Shuhei
S
Nakatani
Shinji
S
Lee
Chulyoo
C
Enomoto
Masaru
M
Tamori
Akihiro
A
Takeda
Tadashi
T
Ohfuji
Satoko
S
Fukushima
Wakaba
W
Tanaka
Takashi
T
Kawamura
Etsuji
E
Shiomi
Susumu
S
D000368:Aged; D000597:Amino Acids, Branched-Chain / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis
D000597:Amino Acids, Branched-Chain; D012709:Serum Albumin