Abstract #0172

Antibiotic rifaximin for treatment of chronic liver disease-induced HE: a longitudinal in vivo 1H-MRS study of brain metabolism

Emmanuelle Flatt¹, Cristina Cudalbu², Olivier Braissant³, Stefanita Mitrea², Dario Sessa⁴, Valérie A. McLin⁴, and Rolf Grütter¹

¹LIFMET, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²CIBM, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³Service of Biomedecine, University Hospital of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴Swiss Center for Liver Disease in Children, Department of Pediatrics, University Hospitals Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

Rifaximin is a commonly-used antibiotic to treat hepatic encephalopathy(HE), a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome caused by hepatic dysfunction. Rifaximin reduces the production of gut ammonia, the main toxin in HE pathogenesis. We hypothesized that the effect of rifaximin on neurometabolic profile is dose-related. Therefore, in this study, the effects of rifaximin administered at 6x human-dose were assessed, in vivo and longitudinally on brain metabolites in bile-duct ligated(BDL) rats using ¹H-MRS at 9.4T, biochemical and behavioral tests. They were compared with non-treated and human-dose treated rats. We showed that higher-dose rifaximin treatment was associated with positive effects on brain Gln,Glu and osmoregulation.

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