A Review of Western and Traditional Chinese Medical Approaches to Managing Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Table 3

Pharmacological interventions for NAFLD.

Medication	Indications	Contraindications	Limitations	Side effects
Vitamin E [46]	Nondiabetic patients with NASH	Prostate cancer	Increasing risk of prostate cancer and hemorrhagic stroke [47]	(i) Increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke [47]
				(ii) Increased mortality above recommended daily allowances [48]
TZD [46]	(i) Diabetic patients with NAFLD	Symptomatic heart failure	(i) Pio: increasing risk of bladder cancer [49]	Weight gain, bone loss, GI upset, fatigue, lower extremity edema
	(ii) NASH		(ii) Rosi: myocardial infarction [50]
OCA [46, 51]	NASH	Not commercialized	(i) Not available in clinical practice	Pruritus, elevated LDL
			(ii) Long-term safety is unknown

GI: gastrointestinal; LDL: low-density lipoprotein; NAFLD: nonalcohol fatty liver disease; NASH: nonalcohol steatohepatitis; OCA: obeticholic acid; Pio: pioglitazone; Rosi: rosiglitazone; TZD: thiazolidinedione.