[S-Adenosylmethionine: plasma levels in hepatic cirrhosis and preliminary results of its clinical use in hepatology. Double-blind study].

Since S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) plasma levels are highly reduced in cirrhotic patients, this, showing that a more or less overt deficiency of SAMe-dependent biological transmethylations does exist in the hepatocyte pathology, mostley affecting the albuminopoyesis. Treatment with 15 mg SAMe i.v. or i.m. administered four times a day for 30 days' period, induced in 15 patients with hepatic cirrhosis a statistically significant improvement of the afore mentioned livel cell function, albuminopoyesis: a significant improvement was also observed in the other biohumoral parameters considered to test hepatic function. Administration of equimolecular (with respect to SAMe) doses of L-methionine and ATP to a group of 15 cirrhotic patients under clinical conditions similar to those of the group previously studied, induced none of the modifications observed in the latter. This proved that the therapeutic effects are due only to S-adenosylmethionine.