Background: We investigated the prevalence, demographic and clinical features, and risk factors associated with
drug-induced liver injury (DILI) during the treatment of
brucellosis inpatients in a retrospective study. Methods: We collected the clinical data of 782
brucellosis inpatients admitted at the Shawan County People's Hospital, Xinjiang, from 2015-2019. All cases were re-evaluated using the international consensus of DILI criteria and RUCAM rating scale. 71 patients were confirmed as DILI cases and compared with 523 other patients with normal liver function. Results: It was indicated that DILI occurred with a prevalence of about 9.08% among
brucellosis inpatients receiving
drug therapy. Hepatocellular injury was the most common type of DILI (61.97%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 50.34-72.37), followed by mixed (23.94%, 95% CI 15.52-35.04) and cholestatic types (14.08%, 95% CI 7.83-24.02). In addition, 13.64% of the hepatocellular DILI cases fulfilled Hy's law criteria and only two cases (2.82%) progressed to severe DILI. Most patients adopted the combination of
rifampicin,
antipyretic analgesics,
anti-infective agents, and
traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of
brucellosis, with all the 71 patients taking
rifampicin as the
drug of choice. Multivariable logistic regression analyses indicated that
obesity, regular alcohol intake, and decreased
serum albumin were the independent risk factors of DILI in patients with
brucellosis after adjusting for gender, age, and ethnicity. Conclusion: DILI occurred in a minority of inpatients diagnosed with
brucellosis receiving
rifampicin-based therapeutic regimen. In addition,
obesity,
alcohol abuse, and decreased
serum albumin were valuable predictors of the risk of DILI in patients with
brucellosis.