Methods of administering and evaluating nitrogen scavenging drugs for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy
View Patent ↗The present disclosure provides methods for treating hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and for optimizing and adjusting nitrogen scavenging drug dosage for subjects with HE.
1. A method of treating hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in a subject comprising:
(a) measuring a fasting blood ammonia level;
(b) comparing the fasting blood ammonia level to the upper limit of normal for blood ammonia; and
(c) administering glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyrate] (HPN-100) to the subject if the fasting blood ammonia level is greater than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal for blood ammonia.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subject has previously been administered a first dosage of glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyratel] (HPN-100).
3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the dosage of glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyrate] (HPN-100) administered in step (c) is greater than the first dosage.
4. A method of optimizing the dosage of a nitrogen scavenging drug for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) comprising:
(a) administering a first dosage of glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyrate] (HPN-100);
(b) measuring a fasting blood ammonia level;
(c) comparing the fasting blood ammonia level to the upper limit of normal for blood ammonia to determine whether to increase the dosage of glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyrate] (HPN-100), wherein the dosage needs to be increased if the fasting blood ammonia level is greater than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal for blood ammonia; and
(d) administering a second dosage of glyceryl tri-[4-phenylbutyrate] (HPN-100) based on the determination in (c).
5. The method of claim 1 or 4 , further comprising a step of determining the upper limit of normal for blood ammonia for the subject.
6. The method of claim 1 or 4 , wherein the upper limit of normal blood ammonia is 35 μmol/L.