scholarly journals Acute-On-Chronic Liver Failure Defined by Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver Should Include Decompensated Cirrhosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manman Xu ◽  
Ming Kong ◽  
Pengfei Yu ◽  
Yingying Cao ◽  
Fang Liu ◽  
...  

Background and Aims: Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is an acute deterioration of chronic liver disease with high short-term mortality. The inclusion or exclusion of previously decompensated cirrhosis (DC) in the diagnostic criteria of ACLF defined by the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL-ACLF) has not been conclusive. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of decompensated cirrhosis in ACLF.Methods: We retrospectively collected a cohort of patients with a diagnosis of APASL-ACLF (with or without DC) hospitalized from 2012 to 2020 at three liver units in tertiary hospitals. Baseline characteristics and survival data at 28, 90, 180, 360, 540, and 720 days were collected.Results: Of the patients assessed using APASL-ACLF criteria without the diagnostic indicator of chronic liver disease, 689 patients were diagnosed with ACLF, of whom 435 had no decompensated cirrhosis (non-DC-ACLF) and 254 had previously decompensated cirrhosis (DC-ACLF). The 28-, 90-, 180-, 360-, 540-, and 720-day mortality were 24.8, 42.9, 48.7, 57.3, 63.4, and 68.1%, respectively, in DC-ACLF patients, which were significantly higher than in non-DC-ACLF patients (p < 0.05). DC was independently associated with long-term (180/360/540/720 days) but not short-term (28/90 days) mortality in patients with ACLF. Age, total bilirubin, international normalized ratio, and hepatic encephalopathy were independent risk factors for short- and long-term mortality risk in ACLF patients (p < 0.05).Conclusions: Patients with DC-ACLF have a higher mortality rate, especially long-term mortality, compared to non-DC-ACLF patients. Therefore, DC should be included in the diagnostic criteria of APASL-ACLF and treated according to the ACLF management process.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tongzeng Li ◽  
Manman Xu ◽  
Ming Kong ◽  
Wenyan Song ◽  
Zhongping Duan ◽  
...  

AbstractSarcopenia is a well-recognized factor affecting the prognosis of chronic liver disease, but its impact on acute decompensation underlying chronic liver disease is unknown. This study evaluated the impact of sarcopenia on short-term mortality in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF). One hundred and seventy-one ACLF patients who underwent abdominal CT between 2015 and 2019 were retrospectively included in this study. Skeletal muscle index at the third lumbar vertebrae (L3-SMI) was used to diagnose sarcopenia.The ACLF patients in this study had a L3-SMI of 41.2 ± 8.3 cm2/m2 and sarcopenia was present in 95/171 (55.6%) patients. Body mass index (BMI), cirrhosis, and higher serum bilirubin were independently associated with sarcopenia. Following multivariate Cox regression analysis, cirrhosis (hazard ratio (HR) 2.758, 95%CI 1.323–5.750), serum bilirubin (HR 1.049, 95%CI 1.026–1.073), and international normalized ratio (INR) (HR 1.725, 95%CI 1.263–2.355) were associated with 3-month mortality (P < 0.05), whereas L3-SMI and sarcopenia were not. A subgroup analysis of the factors related to sarcopenia showed that sarcopenia was still not predictive of short-term outcome in ACLF patients. L3-SMI and sarcopenia are not associated with short-term mortality in patients with ACLF.


Author(s):  
Sanatan Behera ◽  
Vivek Prakash ◽  
Shivam Bajpai ◽  
Umesh Chandra Patra ◽  
Sushanta Kumar Jena

Background: Acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a recently recognised entity in chronic liver disease patients. Data regarding ACLF in terms of clinical presentation, etiology of underlying cirrhosis, precipitating factors, prognostic factors are lacking from eastern India. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the above factors along with the assessment of short-term mortality (4 weeks) in patients of ACLF.Methods: In this prospective observational study, 120 patients diagnosed as ACLF were included. A comparison of complications, biochemical profiles and prognostic scores was made between the survivor and non-survivor groups.Results: Of the 120 ACLF patients included, the mean age was 44.9±8.6 years and the male to female ratio was 2.5:1. Common clinical presentations were jaundice (100%), ascites (88.3%), hepatic encephalopathy (60%). The most common etiology for underlying CLD was alcohol (51.7%) followed by chronic hepatitis B (20%) and chronic hepatitis C (15%) infection. Alcohol hepatitis (40%) followed by hepatotropic viral infections (20%) and drug-induced liver injury (15%) were common identifiable precipitating agents. After a follow-up period of 4 weeks, 56 (46.6%) out of 120 patients died. The presence of sepsis, hyponatremia, renal failure, and coagulopathy was significantly associated with high mortality. Mortality was higher among patients having high Chronic liver failure consortium- acute on chronic liver failure (CLIF-ACLF) grade and closely related to the number of organ failures.Conclusions: ACLF is a rapidly progressive syndrome in chronic liver disease patients, having high short-term mortality.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Giovanni Marasco ◽  
Sinan Sadalla ◽  
Giulio Vara ◽  
Rita Golfieri ◽  
Davide Festi ◽  
...  

Sarcopenia is gaining attention as a negative prognostic factor in different fields of medicine, including chronic liver failure. However, the assessment of sarcopenia in patients with liver diseases is often neglected due to unawareness of reliable tools and methods and thus is limited to research studies. Cross-sectional imaging is a diffuse diagnostic tool and is commonly performed in patients with chronic liver failure. The last advancements in radiology image analysis using dedicated software allow an easy and standardized method to assess skeletal muscle volume. Several measures can be obtained from cross-sectional imaging analysis to evaluate sarcopenia in patients affected by chronic liver disease. We aimed to review the recent advances in imaging-based sarcopenia assessment, in particular in patients with chronic liver diseases. As a result, we found that the skeletal muscle index (SMI) seems to be a reliable method to assess sarcopenia in cirrhotic patients. Even if further studies are needed to validate proper cut-offs for each clinical endpoint, physicians are invited to consider the assessment of sarcopenia in the work-up of patients with chronic liver disease.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nidhi Nautiyal ◽  
Deepanshu Maheshwari ◽  
Dhananjay Kumar ◽  
Rekha Kumari ◽  
Suchi Gupta ◽  
...  

Abstract Background and Aims: Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a distinct clinical entity with high probability of organ failure and mortality. Experimental models of ACLF are needed to understand the pathophysiology and natural course of the disease.Methodology and Results: To mimic the syndrome of ACLF, chronic liver disease was induced by intra-peritoneal administration of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) for 10 weeks, followed by acute injury with acetaminophen (APAP) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS) administration. Blood, ascitic fluid and organs were collected to study cell death, regeneration and fibrosis. APAP/LPS induced second insult to the CCL4 animals showed progressive and significant increase in bilirubin (p < 0.05), prothrombin time (P < 0.0001) and blood ammonia (p < 0.001) post-acute injury similar to human ACLF. Ascites was noticed by day 11 (median serum-ascites albumin gradient, SAAG ((1.2(1.1–1.3) g/dL) suggestive of portal hypertension. At 24 hours post-APAP/LPS infusion, the liver tissue showed increased hepatocyte ballooning and endothelial cell TUNEL positivity. This was followed by progressive hepatocyte necrosis from perivascular region at day 7 to lobular region by day 11 acute injury. They also showed regression in fibrous septa (p < 0.005) in comparison to cirrhosis. A progressive loss of hepatic regeneration (proliferating cell nuclear antigen; p < 0.005) was also seen following APAP/LPS injury. These animals also showed a significant increase in serum creatinine (p < 0.05) levels and renal tubular injury by day 11 which was not present in cirrhotic animals.Conclusion: The CCL4/APAP/LPS (CALPS) model of ACLF mimics the clinical, biochemical and histological features of ACLF with demonstrable progressive hepatocyte necrosis, liver failure, impaired regeneration, development of portal hypertension and organ dysfunction in an animal with chronic liver disease.


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