Change of peripheral blood cortisol concentration in patients with hepatitis B virus-related acute-on-chronic liver failure / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the profile of peripheral blood cortisol concentration in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) and its association with disease severity and predictive value on prognosis.Methods Forty-five patients with HBV-related ACLF,including 15 patients in early-stage,15 in medium stage and 15 in end-stage; and 15 patients with severe chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were also enrolled.Peripheral blood cortisol concentration was tested by chemiluminesence immunoassay.SPSS version 18.0 was used to compare peripheral blood cortisol concentration among different groups and analyze its correlation with prothrombin activity (PTA),total bilirubin (TBil),albumin (Alb),alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),HBV DNA,international normalized ratio (INR) and model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) scores.The independent risk factors of prognosis in patients with HBV-related ACLF were determined by performing Logistic regression analysis.Results The concentrations of peripheral blood cortisol in severe CHB group,early stage ACLF group,medium stage ACLF group and end-stage ACLF group were (595.6±114.0),(496.0±87.2),(303.9±81.1),and (183.8±71.8) nmol/L,respectively.A decreasing trend was observed and the differences among groups were statistically significant (F =63.93,P ＜ 0.01).Peripheral blood cortisol concentration were significantly different among subgroups of patients with MELD＜30,followed by 30-40 and ＞40(F 9.01,P＜0.01).Peripheral blood cortisol concentration in patients with ACLF was positively correlated with PTA level (r=0.83,P＜0.01),and inversely correlated with TBil (r =-0.34,P＜0.05),MELDscore (r =-0.60,P＜0.01),AST/ALT (r =-0.35,P＜0.05),and INR (r=-0.59,P＜0.01).Association with Alb,ALT,AST and HBV DNA was not observed.According to multivariate Logistic regression analysis,MELD score,cortisol level,Alb and total cholesterol were independent risk factors of prognosis for patients with ACLF.Serum cortisol concentration in survival group of HBV-related ACLF was higher than that in death group,while the death group exhibited a gradually decreasing trend.Conclusions The peripheral blood cortisol concentration decreases in patients with HBV-related ACLF,which is related to the degree of liver dysfunction,disease severity and prognosis of patients.Moreover,the lower level of cortisol concentration indicates poor short-term prognosis in patients with HBV related ACLF.