Table 1.
Clinical characteristics in liver transplant recipients and controls.
| Liver transplant recipients n = 271 |
Controls n = 1,018 |
p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Characteristics | |||
| Sex (male), n (%) | 158 (58.3) | 593 (58.3) | 1 |
| Age, years, median (IQR) | 55 (46–64) | 57 (48–64) | 0.10 |
| Elevated eosinophils a , n (%) | 7 (2.6) | 36 (3.5) | 0.57 |
| Smoking and self-reported respiratory morbidity | |||
| Current smokers, n (%) | 35 (12.9) | 142 (13.9) | 0.69 |
| Cumulated smoking, pack-years, median (IQR) | 9.0 (4.6–20.0) | 17.5 (7.5–32) | 0.58 |
| Self-reported asthma, n (%) | 18 (6.6) | 74 (7.3) | 0.79 |
| Self-reported allergy, n (%) | 66 (24.4) | 317 (31.1) | 0.03 |
| Self-reported use of inhalation medicine, n (%) | 18 (6.6) | 60 (5.9) | 0.67 |
| Liver transplantation-related variables | |||
| Time since LTX years, median (IQR) | 6.8 (2.8–12.2) | NA | |
| Reason for transplantation b | NA | ||
| - Autoimmune liver disease, n (%) | 123 (45.4) | ||
| o Autoimmune hepatitis | 38 | ||
| o Primary sclerosing cholangitis | 83 | ||
| o Primary biliary cholangitis | 18 | ||
| o Other | 8 | ||
| - Alcoholic or cryptogenic cirrhosis, n (%) | 60 (22.1) | ||
| - Cancer, n (%) | 21 (7.7) | ||
| - Fulminant hepatic failure, n (%) | 18 (6.6) | ||
| - Metabolic disease, n (%) | 15 (5.5) | ||
| - Hepatitis C, n (%) | 11 (4.1) | ||
| - Other, n (%) | 52 (19.2) | ||
| Immunosuppressive medication at inclusion | NA | ||
| - Prednisolone, n (%) | 129 (47.6) | ||
| - Tacrolimus, n (%) | 223 (82.3) | ||
| - Ciclosporin, n (%) | 26 (9.6) | ||
| - Everolimus, n (%) | 17 (6.3) | ||
| - MMF, n (%) | 195 (72.0) | ||
| - Azathioprine, n (%) | 23 (8.5) | ||
a
Elevated eosinophils defined as counts above 0.5 × 109/L.
b
Liver transplant recipients can have more than one reason for transplantation.
NA, not applicable.