Table 3.
Demographic and clinical characteristics in patients with cirrhosis due to alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis C, and cholestatic liver disease
| Alcoholic liver cirrhosis (n = 55) | Hepatitis C cirrhosis (n = 32) | Cholestatic cirrhosis (n = 29) | |
| Age | 60 (8) * | 54 (7) | 54 (14) |
| Female/Male | 12/43 (22%/78%) | 9/23 (28%/72%) | 9/20 (31%/69%) |
| Outpatients/inpatients | 42/13 (76%/24%) | 27/5 (84%/16%) | 25/4 (86%/14%) |
| Previous variceal bleeding | 15 (27%) | 7 (22%) | 8 (28%) |
| Esophageal and/or fundic varices | 37 (67%) | 21 (66%) | 24 (83%) |
| Ascites | 31 (56%)* | 10 (31%) | 9 (31%) |
| Hepatocellular carcinoma | 6 (11%) | 9 (28%)* | 1 (3.4%) |
| Number connection test A | |||
| Mean (SD) (sec) | 68 (51) | 52 (33) | 50 (44) |
| Above 3 SDa | 10 (18%) | 2 (6%) | 3 (10%) |
| Number Connection test B | |||
| Mean (SD) (sec) | 165 (87) | 141 (83) | 118 (69) |
| Above 3 SDa | 13 (24%) | 5 (16%) | 4 (14%) |
| Overt hepatic encephalopathy | 15 (27%) | 6 (19%) | 4 (14%) |
| (West-Haven)b | |||
| Grade I | 14 (25.5%) | 6 (19%) | 3 (10.5%) |
| Grade II | 1 (2%) | 0 | 1 (3.5%) |
| Minimal hepatic | 4 (7%) | 2 (6%) | 2 (7%) |
| encephalopathyc | 19 (34%) | 8 (25%) | 6 (21%) |
| Hepatic encephalopathy | |||
| (minimal or overt) | |||
| Fasting plasma ammonium ion (μmol/l) | 50 (26) | 51 (35) | 52 (21) |
| MELD score | 14.9 (7.2) | 12.6 (5) | 14.3 (5.4) |
| Child-Pugh score | 9 (2.6) | 8.2 (2.2) | 8.8 (2) |
| Diabetes mellitus | 20 (36%) | 11 (34%) | 3 (10%)* |
Data are presented as mean (SD) or n (%) as appropriate
a Compared to age-corrected normal values from the general population
b Overt hepatic encephalopathy according to West-Haven criteria: none with grade III or IV
c Defined as absence of overt hepatic encephalopathy and number connection test A > 3SD and/or number connection test B > 3SD
For comparisons of continuous variables if one-Way ANOVA was significant (p < 0.05), the post-hoc Bonferroni test was used for comparisons among different groups.
For comparisons of if the chi-square test was significant (p < 0.05) when data from all groups were tested, the chi-square test was used for post-hoc analysis among different groups
*p < 0.05 compared to the other two groups