Saurabh Sethi, M.D., a second-year Internal Medicine resident with the Wayne State University School of Medicine, presented research findings this week at the 2009 annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course of the American College of Gastroenterology in San Diego, Calif.

Dr. Sethi is the lead author of the study “A Review of ACE-Inhibitor Associated Hepatoxicity.” The study’s other authors include Milton G. Mutchnick, M.D., professor and chief of the Division of Gastroenterology at Wayne State University; Robert G. Fontana, M.D., associate professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan; and Elizabeth J. May, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine at Wayne State University.

The team’s review of previously published literature found that the use of ACE inhibitors may bring with it a risk of hepatotoxicity (toxic damage to the liver), and that toxicity may be more widespread than commonly thought.

In two-thirds of the cases of toxicity studied, the condition was detected within eight weeks of the start of ACE inhibitor therapy. Most of those patients improved within a week of the withdrawal of the drugs.

Reports about the findings were published in Today in Medicine by the American Gastroenterological Association (http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2009102701aga&r=3700225-fa30) and MedPage Today News (http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACG/16615).