Fuzhenghuayu for Patients With PBC Who Had An Inadequate Response to Ursodeoxycholic Acid

Ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) has been the only treatment for PBC approved by US and European drug administrations. Long-term use of UDCA(13-15 mg/kg/day) in patients with PBC improves serum liver biochemistries and survival free of liver transplantation However, about 40% of patients do not respond to UDCA optimally as assessed by known criteria for biochemical response. Those patients represent the group in need for additional therapies, having increased risk of disease progression and decreased survival free of liver transplantation. And UDCA has less effect on PBC patients whose pathology stage 3-4. Liver fibrosis might jeopardize the UDCA effect. Fuzhenghuayu is a Chinese traditional medicine for liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Both lab research and some clinical studies suggest that Fuzhenghuayu could significantly reverse liver fibrosis and cirrhosis due to different kind of etiology. Here we start a random, open and parallel clinical research to explore the effect of Fuzhenghuayu combined with UDCA in the PBC treatment.