13. Prevalence of cardiopulmonary comorbidities in end stage liver disease patients worked up for liver transplantation

Abstract

Background and Aims: It was thought previously that cardiovascular diseases were rare in cirrhotic patients in view of peripheral vasodilatation. However recent studies have shown that up to one fourth of these patients may have critical coronary artery stenosis and half of these patients might die during perioperative period due to the cardiac complications. Similarly, these patients may have various obstructive or restrictive pulmonary diseases. We aimed this study to estimate prevalence of various cardiac and pulmonary diseases in patients with end stage liver disease worked up for liver transplantation. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data of 70 patients with decompensated cirrhotic patients of various etiology who were worked up for liver transplantation between 2010 January to 2018 June were enrolled into study. All the patients underwent various blood and imaging investigations. For cardiopulmonary assessment these patients underwent various noninvasive and invasive investigations including electrocardiography, echocardiography, stress thallium scan, coronary angiography and pulmonary function tests and arterial blood gas analysis. Results: Six of 70 (8.4%) patients had coronary artery disease. Two (3%) patients had systolic dysfunction. Eighteen (26%) patients had restrictive pulmonary disease out of which eleven (16%) had moderate restrictive pulmonary disease while eight (10%) had mild restrictive pulmonary disease. Only one (1.5%) patient had severe restrictive pulmonary disease and one (1.5%) had obstructive pulmonary disease. Conclusion: Coronary artery disease is uncommon in end stage liver disease patients. However mild to moderate restrictive pulmonary diseases may be common in these population. The authors have none to declare.