Risk factors assessment in patients with acute fatty liver of pregnancy treated without plasma exchange or renal replacement therapy

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Objective Acute fatty liver of pregnancy(AFLP) is a rare but very urgent obstetric disease in clinical. It is a common cause of liver failure in pregnancy and often needs to be admitted to the department of critical care medicine because of the rapid development of acute hepatic dysfunction and severe acute renal dysfunction. The etiology and pathogenesis of this disorder is not very clear although there have been many studies on it before. Meanwhile, the relatively high mortality requires a better recognition in order to better guide clinical decision making. Our previous multicentre retrospective study on AFLP demonstrated that total bilirubin and serum creatinine were independent risk factors for perinatal maternal mortality. And we aim to further assess maternal outcomes and risk factors in AFLP patients treated without plasma exchange or renal replacement therapy based on previous data we collected. Methods Retrospective cohort study of 133 hospitalized patients with AFLP was collected from four Chinese tertiary hospitals during the period between January 2009 and April 2014. One hundred thirty three patients were divided into two subgroups containing patients treated without plasma exchange (PE) or renal replacement therapy (CRT) and patients treated with PE or/and CRT. Logistic regression was used to analyze independent risk factors for maternal mortality of AFLP treated without PE or CRT. Results The maternal mortality rate was 12.0% in subgroup of patients treated without PE or CRT. And in subgroup of patients treated with PE or/and CRT, the maternal mortality rate was 26.8%. Independent risk factors for maternal mortality of AFLP treated without PE or CRT were direct bilirubin (OR = 1.012; 95% CI, 1.002–1.022) and serum creatinine (OR = 1.022; 95% CI, 1.007–1.036). Conclusion Although less liver and kidney damage in AFLP treated without PE or CRT, direct bilirubin and serum creatinine remained to be independent risk factors for maternal mortality. Thus, the level of bilirubin and serum creatinine might not be necessary for AFLP to decide whether to give plasma exchange or dialysis treatment.