Clinical study on effect of matrine injection to protect the liver function for patients with primary hepatic carcinoma after trans-artery chemo-embolization (TAE)

Objective: To study effect of Matrine injection to prevent the liver function of patients with primary hepatic carcinoma (PHC) after trans-artery chemo-embolization.

Methods: 122 patients with PHC admitted to our hospital between October 1999 and June 2004 were randomly divided into therapy group (62 cases) and control group (60 cases). In therapy group, the patients after trans-artery chemo-embolization (TAE) were infused 150 mg Matrine injection once a day for two weeks, while we used other same hepatinica on patients in control group. The levels of alamine aminotransferase (ALT) , aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum total bilirubin (STB), Albumin (ALB) were tested before and after one week and two weeks of TAE.

Results: In therapy group, the levels of ALT and AST at one week after TAE were much higher than that before TAE (P <0.01) until two weeks later (P > 0.05). In control group, the levels of ALT, AST, STB were all elevated at one week (P < 0.01), and that of the ALT and AST did not come down to the levels at two weeks before TAE.

Conclusions: Matrine injection may be used to protect the liver function for patients with PHC after TAE, to relieve the liver cells damage, and to improve the tolerance of TAE, so as to perform the next TAE in time.