Therapeutic Trial of Methionine in Infective Hepatitis

Hepato‐biliary clinical trials and their inclusion in the Cochrane Hepato‐Biliary Group register and reviews

“…Figure 2 shows the number of RCT or CCT according to their year of publication in the CHBG register. The earliest two CCT were published in 1945 9,10 and the earliest report on three RCT was published in 1955 11 . From 1955 to 1980, the number of publications on RCT and CCT rose slowly (Fig.…”

“…The growth of publications on hepato‐biliary RCT and CCT per year seems to follow a general historical pattern of publications of RCT and CCT 56 (Gluud C and Nikolova D, unpublished work 2010). The earliest two hepato‐biliary CCT seem to have been published at the end of World War II 9,10 . This represents a noteworthy delay, considering the facts that the first CCT was published in 1898, 57 the trial methodology and statistics were well described already in the 1800s, 58 and that many CCT were published before World War II (http://www.jameslindlibrary.org).…”

Vitamin A in Infective Hepatitis

“…The patients received a normal diet, without restriction of fat and without extra protein or vitamins. A few cases were included in a clinical trial with methionine, but this substance did not appear to be beneficial (Wilson, Pollock, and Harris, 1945) or to affect the vitamin A status.…”

“…Pollock (1945) has dealt with the improvement in hippuric acid synthesis in infective hepatitis and concludes that maximum liver damage in this disease occurs in the pre-icteric stage. In our investigation the parallelism between plasma vitamin A and hippuric acid synthesis was fairly close in individual cases.…”

Choline

“…In contrast, methionine in a dosage of 5 gm. daily was found to be ineffective in altering the course of infectious hepatitis in a large series of adequately controlled cases (61,62). The course of infectious hepatitis was studied (63) by several criteria including the length of time to reach the first day of fall of serum bilirubin to 0.6 mg. per 100 cc., the first day of bile-free urine and the first day of return of appetite.…”