Association of energy metabolic markers with the short-term risk of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in patients with decompensated hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the association of energy metabolic markers with the risk of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) in patients with decompensated hepatitis B virus-related liver cirrhosis (HBV-LC). Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the clinical data of the patients with decompensated HBV-LC who were admitted to Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University from November 2017 to November 2019, and baseline clinical parameters and energy metabolic markers were compared between the patients with SBP and those without SBP within 2 weeks after admission. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the risk factors for SBP. The t -test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two groups; the Fisher's exact test was used for comparison of categorical data between two groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of the newly established logistic regression model, and with the corresponding point of Youden index as the cut-off value, the DeLong test was used to compare the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Results A total of 50 patients with decompensated HBV-LC were included, among whom 23 (46%) developed SBP within 2 weeks after admission and 27 (54%) had no SBP during hospitalization. Compared with the non-SBP patients, the SBP patients had significantly lower triglyceride, prealbumin, and prothrombin time activity (PTA) and significantly higher international normalization ratio, C-reactive protein (CRP), and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score (all P < 0.05). Comparison of baseline energy metabolic markers showed that compared with the non-SBP patients, the SBP patients had significantly lower respiratory quotient (RQ) [0.79(0.76-0.86) vs 0.85(0.79-0.91), P =0.041] and carbohydrate oxidation (CHO) rate [20.50%(15.25%-41.05%) vs 41.6%(22.25%-68.05%), P =0.041]. The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that PTA was an independent risk factor for SBP in the patients with decompensated HBV-LC during hospitalization (odd ratio=0.004, P =0.008), and the regression model established based on the variables including PTA, CRP, RQ, and CHO had an AUC of 85.0% and a cut-off value of 0.60 at the maximum Youden index, with a specificity of 85.19% and a sensitivity of 73.91%, suggesting that this model had a better discriminatory ability than CRP (AUC=74.5%, P =0.049) and procalcitonin (AUC=56.4%, P < 0.01). Conclusion There are significant reductions in the energy metabolic markers RQ and CHO in the patients with decompensated HBV-LC who develop SBP within a short term, and their combination with PTA, CRP, and CHO/RQ ratio can help clinicians identify the patients at a high risk of SBP in the early stage and enhance nutrition support for such patients.