Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is largely a diagnosis of exclusion and is therefore challenging. The US Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) prospective study used two methods to assess DILI causality: a structured expert opinion process and the Roussel-Uclaf Causality Assessment Method (RUCAM). Causality assessment focused on detailed clinical and laboratory data from patients with suspected DILI. The adjudication process used standardized numerical and descriptive definitions and scored cases as definite, highly likely, probable, possible, or unlikely. Results of the structured expert opinion procedure were compared with those derived by the RUCAM approach. Among 250 patients with suspected DILI, the expert opinion adjudication process scored 78 patients (31%) as definite, 102 (41%) as highly likely, 37 (15%) as probable, 25 (10%) as possible, and 8 (3%) as unlikely. Among 187 enrollees who had received a single implicated drug, initial complete agreement was reached for 50 (27%) with the expert opinion process and for 34 (19%) with a five-category RUCAM scale (P = 0.08), and the two methods demonstrated a modest correlation with each other (Spearman's r = 0.42, P = 0.0001). Importantly, the RUCAM approach substantially shifted the causality likelihood toward lower probabilities in comparison with the DILIN expert opinion process. Conclusion The structured DILIN expert opinion process produced higher agreement rates and likelihood scores than RUCAM in assessing causality, but there was still considerable interobserver variability in both. Accordingly, a more objective, reliable, and reproducible means of assessing DILI causality is still needed.

Background The principal biological processes that characterize heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) are systemic inflammation, epicardial adipose tissue accumulation, coronary microcirculatory rarefaction, myocardial fibrosis and vascular stiffness; the resulting impairment of left ventricular and aortic distensibility (especially when accompanied by impaired glomerular function and sodium retention) causes increases in cardiac filling pressures and exertional dyspnoea despite the relative preservation of left ventricular ejection fraction. Independently of their actions on blood glucose, sodium–glucose co‐transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors exert a broad range of biological effects (including actions to inhibit cardiac inflammation and fibrosis, antagonize sodium retention and improve glomerular function) that can ameliorate the pathophysiological derangements in HFpEF. Such SGLT2 inhibitors exert favourable effects in experimental models of HFpEF and have been found in large‐scale trials to reduce the risk for serious heart failure events in patients with type 2 diabetes, many of whom were retrospectively identified as having HFpEF. Study design The EMPEROR‐Preserved Trial is enrolling ≈5750 patients with HFpEF (ejection fraction >40%), with and without type 2 diabetes, who are randomized to receive placebo or empagliflozin 10 mg/day, which is added to all appropriate treatments for HFpEF and co‐morbidities. Study aims The primary endpoint is the time‐to‐first‐event analysis of the combined risk for cardiovascular death or hospitalization for heart failure. The trial will also evaluate the effects of empagliflozin on renal function, cardiovascular death, all‐cause mortality and recurrent hospitalization events, and will assess a wide range of biomarkers that reflect important pathophysiological mechanisms that may drive the evolution of HFpEF. The EMPEROR‐Preserved Trial is well positioned to determine if empagliflozin can have a meaningful impact on the course of HFpEF, a disorder for which there are currently few therapeutic options.

This newly developed list of drugs associated with hepatotoxicity and the multifaceted analysis on hepatotoxicity will aid in causality assessment and clinical diagnosis of DILI and will provide a basis for further characterization of hepatotoxicity.

Background & Aims Fluoroquinolone-induced liver injury is rare; no prospective studies of well-characterized case series have been published. We studied patients with fluoroquinolone-induced hepatoxicity, using data from the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) to characterize injury patterns, outcomes, and associated features. Methods We identified subjects with fluoroquinolone hepatotoxicity who enrolled in the DILIN from September 2004 to January 2010. Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods. Results Of the 679 registrants in the DILIN prospective study, 12 had hepatoxicity from fluoroquinolones (6 ciprofloxacin, 4 moxifloxacin, 1 levofloxacin, and 1 gatifloxacin). Seven were women; the median age was 57 years (range 23–80 years), and the median time from the start of fluoroquinolone therapy to symptoms was only 4 days (range 1–39 days). Nine cases developed symptoms on medication (2, 8, and 32 days after they stopped the medication, 3 patients each). Cases were equally distributed among hepatocellular injury (predominantly increased levels of alanine aminotransferase), cholestatic injury (predominantly increased levels of alkaline phosphatase [AP]), and both. Seven cases had immunoallergic features. Patients with mixed hepatocellular and cholestatic injury had mild disease without jaundice—all recovered. In contrast, 2 of 4 patients with hepatocellular injury and jaundice died, 1 of acute liver failure. One patient with cholestatic injury developed vanishing bile duct syndrome and required liver transplantation; another had a persistently increased serum level of AP. Conclusions Fluoroquinolone liver injury is rapid in onset and often has immunoallergic features, indicating a hypersensitivity reaction. The pattern of injury is can be hepatocellular, cholestatic, or mixed—mixed cases are the least severe. Acute and chronic liver failure can occur.

Proton pump inhibitor treatment provides more consistent heartburn relief than an H2-receptor antagonist, or "step-up" or "step-down" therapy.