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Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with acute liver
failure (ALF) and to analyze the factors affecting the treatment outcomes during hospitalization.
Methods A retrospective analysis was conducted on the medical records of patients with
a confirmed diagnosis of ALF who sought medical care for various etiologies at Beijing
Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University from November 1st, 2010 to July 31st, 2021. The
patients were divided into recovery group and poor-outcome group according to treatment
outcomes. The differences in baseline levels of albumin (Alb), white blood cell (WBC),
platelet (PLT), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), total bilirubin
(TBil), direct bilirubin (DBil), gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase
(ALP), blood ammonia, creatinine, prothrombin time (PT), prothrombin time activity (PTA),
international normalized ratio (INR) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) were compared between
the two groups. Univariate and multivariate Logistic regression analysis were performed
to identify the influencing factors for ALF prognosis. The receiver operator characteristic
(ROC) curve was applied to analyze the predictive value of each influencing factor for
ALF prognosis. Results A total of 128 patients with ALF were enrolled in this study, with
44 cases in recovery group and 84 cases in poor-outcome group. The primary etiology of ALF
was viral hepatitis (55/128), and the onset of the disease was mainly concentrated in summer
(36/128). The levels of ln (TBil) (median: 2.33 μmol/L vs. 2.28 μmol/L), blood ammonia
(median: 51.00 mmol/L vs. 42.00 mmol/L), PT (median: 43.40 s vs. 31.20 s), INR (median:
4.20 vs. 2.69), the proportion of gastrointestinal bleeding [33% (28/84) vs. 16% (7/44)], the
proportion of acute renal failure [30% (25/84) vs. 14% (6/44)], the proportion of cerebral
edema [5% (2/44) vs. 23% (19/84)] and the proportion of grade Ⅱ hepatic encephalopathy
[72% (32/44) vs. 51% (43/84)] in poor-outcome group were all significantly higher than those
in the recovery group, while GGT (median: 76.80 U/L vs. 101.70 U/L) and PTA (median:
13.10% vs. 25.00%) were significantly lower than those in the recovery group (all P < 0.05).
Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that cerebral edema (OR = 5.318, 95%CI:
1.073~26.310, P = 0.041) and elevated ln (TBil) (OR = 8.442, 95%CI: 1.744~40.864,
P = 0.008) were independent risk factors for poor prognosis in ALF patients, while elevated
PTA was a protective factor (OR = 0.918, 95%CI: 0.881~0.957, P < 0.001). The area under
the ROC curve of combined detection of cerebral edema, ln (TBil) and PTA for predicting
ALF prognosis was 0.804 (95%CI: 0.712~0.877, P < 0.001), with a specificity of 75.41%
and a sensitivity of 84.21%. Conclusions Cerebral edema and elevated TBil were independent
risk factors for poor prognosis in patients with ALF, while elevated PTA was a protective
factor. The combined detection of these three indicators had a certain predictive value for the
prognosis of ALF.
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