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ABSTRACT: Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a serious complication of cirrhosis; however, the impact of minimal HE on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) remains controversial. The Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score (PHES) remains a 'gold standard' for the assessment of minimal HE, but its results clearly differ between studied populations.
We studied the effect of minimal HE on patient HRQoL.
Eighty-seven consecutive cirrhotic patients were included. All patients underwent clinical and psychometric evaluation at the same day. Ten subjects with overt HE confirmed with West Haven criteria were excluded from the study, thus 77 patients were finally analysed. Patients with minimal HE were identified on the grounds of altered PHES. HRQoL was assessed by the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ). Normative reference data for PHES were established from a cohort of 305 healthy Polish subjects.
Twenty-nine (37.7%) patients were diagnosed with minimal HE. When patients with and without minimal HE were compared, HRQoL was not significantly different in none of the SF-36 and CLDQ domains.
Minimal HE does not affect HRQoL.
Liver international: official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver 08/2011; 31(7):980-4. · 3.82 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Recent studies suggest that stage-independent symptoms of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) such as chronic fatigue are a consequence of structural and functional abnormalities of the brain. Critical flicker frequency (CFF) is a psychophysiological modality analysing function of cerebral cortex.
To analyse the usefulness of CFF in detection of brain dysfunction in patients with PBC.
Fifty-one (37 non-cirrhotic/14 cirrhotic) patients with PBC were included. Control group consisted of 31 matched healthy individuals. Fatigue and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were assessed using Fatigue Impact Scale (FIS) and questionnaire PBC-40. CFF was analysed with HEPAtonorm Analyzer(®).
When compared to healthy controls all patients with PBC showed significantly impaired HRQoL in majority of PBC-40 domains and increased fatigue level in physical domain of FIS. No differences in HRQoL and PBC-40 domains were seen, when patients with and without cirrhosis where compared. CFF analysis showed no difference between healthy controls and patients with PBC. CFF did not correlate with PBC-40 and FIS domains.
CFF fails to determine brain dysfunction in non-encephalopatic patients with PBC, suggesting that functional efficiency of their cerebral cortex remains unaffected and other central mechanisms are responsible for chronic fatigue in these patients.
Digestive and Liver Disease 11/2010; 42(11):818-21. · 3.05 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a wide spectrum of liver diseases, ranging from pure steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and eventually to liver cirrhosis with its complications. Identifying advanced fibrosis in patients is crucial to evaluating prognosis and possible therapeutic intervention. A novel, simple, and highly accurate scoring system called BARD, which identifies patients with NAFLD and without significant fibrosis, has been recently introduced and validated in North America..The aim of this study is to validate the BARD scoring system in a Polish cohort with NAFLD.
A group of 104 Caucasians with biopsy-proven NAFLD were included in this study. Fibrosis in liver biopsies was evaluated according to the Histological Scoring System for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. The BARD scoring system was assessed according to Harrison et al.: BMI > or = 28 = 1 point, AST/ALT ratio (AAR) > or = 0.8 = 2 points, type 2 diabetes mellitus = 1 point.
Age over 50 and AAR over 0.8 showed, respectively, a moderate and strong association with advanced fibrosis. A BARD score of 2-4 points was associated with F3 or F4 stages of fibrosis with an odds ratio of 17.333 (95% Cl; 3,639 - 82.558) and negative predictive value of 97%.
Our results demonstrate that the BARD scoring system has value in the non-invasive diagnosis of advanced fibrosis in NAFLD patients. The vast majority of patients with NAFLD would avoid liver biopsy if BARD was broadly introduced into the clinic.
BMC Gastroenterology 01/2010; 10:67. · 2.42 Impact Factor
