Oduola Taofeeq^1,, Bature Farida¹, Ndakotsu Mohammed Alhaji², Yakubu Abdulmumini³, Dallatu Mohammed Kabiru¹, Mainasara Abdullahi Suleiman⁴

Background: Drug induced hepatotoxicity have been known to be a common cause of liver failure. Drugs can either have a short-term or long-term adverse effect. The risk of side effect varies from drug to drug and from patient to patient. Most of the patients that need anticoagulant therapy are on the drugs for a long period, hence liver function may be impaired during the course of therapy this study was designed to investigate the effect of anticoagulant drugs on liver function. Methods: Thirty patients who have been on anticoagulant therapy between 1to 20 years (X5.8years), 30 patients that were yet to commence anticoagulant therapy but with the same clinical condition and 30 apparently healthy subjects were recruited for the study. Effect of duration of therapy on liver function were also assessed. Patients with background liver disease from any cause were excluded from the study. Five ml of blood were collected from each of the participant and liver function biomarkers estimated using standard techniques. Result: Therewere statistically significant increases (P<0.001) in values of aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and gammaglutamyl transferase(GGT) in patients on anticoagulant therapy and patients that were not on anticoagulant therapy when compared with control subjects but the increases were within the reference range. There was no significant difference (P>0.001) in alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), total bilirubin (TB) and direct bilirubin (DB) values between the patients and the control group. Conclusion: The slight elevation in liver function biomarkers assessed in patients on anticoagulant therapy could not be linked to the effect of the drug because patients with the same clinical conditions that were not on anticoagulant therapy showed the same elevation of the biomarkers. We did not observe effect of duration of therapy on liver function. The liver function biomarkers assessed were within the reference range in both the patients on therapy and those not on therapy. From our findings, we did not observe hepatotoxicity among our subjects.

liver function, biomarkers, anticoagulant therapy, patients, adverse effect