Lifestyle versus ezetimibe plus lifestyle in patients with biopsy-proven non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (LISTEN): A double-blind randomised placebo-controlled trial

Background and aims: The LISTEN trial (ClinicalTrial.gov accession: NCT01950884) is a phase IV 52 weeks double blind parallel randomized controlled trial that evaluated the effect of ezetimibe plus lifestyle and dietary intervention (eze) vs. lifestyle and dietary intervention alone (placebo) on progression and complications of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) evaluated by liver histology. Methods and results: Forty patients with NASH ascertained by histology were randomly allocated on the two study groups and subjected to a follow-up of 52 weeks, when they underwent a second liver biopsy. Main composite end point (EP) was based on the histological improvement in the severity of NASH. Thirty patients completed the study, Eze treatment was not able to improve the primary EP in comparison with placebo, with and odds ratio of 1.029 (0.18-6.38)