title: Influence of combined therapy with conventional and herbal medicines on liver function in 138 inpatients with abnormal liver transaminase levels.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  To evaluate the influence of combined therapy of conventional and herbal medicines on liver function.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was a retrospective chart review. A total of 138 patients with abnormal liver transaminase levels at the time of admission were included in this study. We evaluated the influence of combined therapy of conventional and herbal medicines on liver transaminase levels over a period of at least 2 weeks at Kyung Hee University Korean Medical Hospital. Analyses were performed using SPSS version 17.0 for Windows. Paired T-tests were used to examine the significance of differences in AST, ALT, and GGT levels at the time of admission and discharge.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that combined therapy reduced levels of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) to a statistically significant level. Specifically, there were 48, 66, 104 subjects who exhibited abnormal AST, ALT and GGT levels at admission, which was reduced to 13, 37, and 64 subjects after combined therapy, respectively. Some subjects exhibited worsening levels of liver transaminases after combined therapy, so we used the χ2test to analyze the influence of combined therapy with conventional and herbal medicines on liver function according to initial liver transaminase levels. According to this analysis, ALT and GGT levels may be more important than AST levels in estimating the influence of combined therapy on patients with abnormal liver transaminase levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on this retrospective chart review, combined therapy of conventional and herbal medicines would be considered relatively safe. Thus, if patients have abnormal ALT or GGT levels, caution should be taken when suggesting combined therapy with conventional and herbal medicines.
authors.affiliation: Graduate school of Korean medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jun Hyuk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology & Dermatology of Korean medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyuseok
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology & Dermatology of Korean medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoegi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul, 130-701, Republic of Korea. ophthrl@khu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hae Jeong
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9974-0863
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Nam
mesh_terms: D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D029001:Herbal Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D000637:Transaminases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000637:Transaminases
keywords: ALT; AST; Combined therapy of conventional and herbal medicines; GGT; Liver function; Liver transaminases