Abstract
OBJECTIVE:Little is known about metabolic factors in cirrhotic patients in China. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the prevalence of both metabolic factors and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related liver cirrhosis in China.METHODS:The medical records of 1,582 patients diagnosed with liver cirrhosis from June 2003 to July 2013 at Daping Hospital (Chongqing, China) were retrospectively reviewed through a computer-generated search.RESULTS:Serum hepatitis B virus surface antigen was present in 1,083 (68.5%) patients, and hepatitis B was found to be the only etiological factor in 938 (59.3%) of all patients. Obesity, diabetes mellitus, and arterial hypertension were observed in 229 (14.5%), 159 (10.1%), and 129 (8.2%) patients, respectively. From 2012-2013, the proportion of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related liver cirrhosis increased to 3.2%, whereas the average proportion of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related liver cirrhosis in the previous ten years was 1.9%. The incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma was much higher in males than in females (6.3% vs. 3.7%, respectively, p=0.036). Obesity and diabetes mellitus did not significantly increase the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in the whole cirrhotic group. The presence of hepatitis B virus was the only risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients (p<0.001).CONCLUSIONS:Although hepatitis B virus remains the main etiology of liver cirrhosis in China, steatohepatitis-related liver cirrhosis is increasing in frequency. Hepatitis B virus was the sole significant risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in the whole cirrhotic group in the present study, in contrast to obesity and diabetes mellitus, for which only a trend of increased hepatocellular carcinoma was found.
Highlights
The main etiology of liver cirrhosis (LC) in China is hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection [1]
According to one nationwide Japanese survey, 2.1% of cirrhosis cases were attributable to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-related cirrhosis based on the researchers’ own criteria, which mainly diagnosed NASH-related cirrhosis as cryptogenic cirrhosis associated with obesity (BMI over 25), diabetes mellitus (DM) or metabolic syndrome (Met-s) [4]
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) accounted only for 1.8% of cases (1.0% of patients had HCV alone, 0.5% had HCV combined with HBV, and 0.3% had HCV combined with alcohol abuse)
Summary
We aimed to quantify the prevalence of both metabolic factors and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related liver cirrhosis in China. Diabetes mellitus, and arterial hypertension were observed in 229 (14.5%), 159 (10.1%), and 129 (8.2%) patients, respectively. Obesity and diabetes mellitus did not significantly increase the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma in the whole cirrhotic group. The presence of hepatitis B virus was the only risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in cirrhotic patients (po0.001). CONCLUSIONS: hepatitis B virus remains the main etiology of liver cirrhosis in China, steatohepatitisrelated liver cirrhosis is increasing in frequency. Hepatitis B virus was the sole significant risk factor for hepatocellular carcinoma in the whole cirrhotic group in the present study, in contrast to obesity and diabetes mellitus, for which only a trend of increased hepatocellular carcinoma was found
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
