ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION Cardiovascular disease and diabetes are among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in the civilized world. Therapeutic approaches to these diseases in general require a significant number of drugs and concomitant administration of a large group of medications that in many instances leads to significant drug interactions and target organ toxicity (1). One of the challenges facing physicians today is the assimilation of new developments in health care to follow treatment guidelines and awareness of potential side effects of an increasing number of new medications. Drugs designed for cardiovascular diseases or diabetes have effects on the liver in addition to those in other organs. For example, hypolipidemic agents can induce systemic adverse reactions in addition to hepatic changes. Nicotinic acid in a sustained-release formulation caused severe or fatal liver injury among other symptoms (2). Elevated phospholipid levels were reported in the serum and liver, and
550 de la Iglesia et al.
