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ABSTRACT: Introduction
Patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) have a dynamic disease process and risk of end-stage liver disease. It is critical to unambiguously differentiate the stages of the disease and focus on therapy prior to onset of an irreversible clinical endpoint. Methods
We retrospectively analyzed a wide range of CHB patients at different stages. The predictive power of serum complement component 3 (C3) levels for the development of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) in patients with decompensated cirrhosis was established and validated. Results
The decrease in serum C3 levels paralleled the severity of diseases related to hepatitis B virus. Patients with decompensated cirrhosis who developed ACLF had significantly lower serum C3 levels than others on admission (0.50 vs. 0.80 g/L, P < 0.001). Data analysis also revealed that low serum C3 was a significant risk factor for developing ACLF (hazard ratio = 0.32, P < 0.01). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (auROC) for serum C3 levels that predicted the development of ACLF in patients with decompensated cirrhosis was 0.90, which had sensitivity and specificity of 88.2% and 88.7%, respectively. A similar result was observed in the validation set (auROC = 0.86 for predicting development of ACLF in patients with decompensated cirrhosis). Conclusions
Serum C3 levels are valuable in assessing the severity of CHB-related stages. Low C3 levels signifies the development of ACLF in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12325-022-02416-7. Plain Language Summary Generally, acute-on-chronic liver failure is a rapidly worsening liver failure syndrome. This disease is intractable and with high mortality. Acute decompensation of the liver is defined as the occurrence of complications of liver disease (i.e., ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding, and bacterial infection). Clinically, acute decompensation in hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis (a result of chronic liver injury by virus) often develops into acute-on-chronic liver failure. In addition, the complement component 3 is a serum protein, which participates in the immune response against virus infection and has been reported to be associated with liver failure. We tried to explore the feature of serum complement component 3 to differentiate the stages of the disease and assess its predictive value for acute-on-chronic liver failure. So, we analyzed the complement component 3 data from a broad range of hepatitis B virus-cirrhosis patients. Through analysis, we found that complement component 3 levels are valuable in assessing the severity of chronic hepatitis B-related stages. Low complement component 3 levels can also signify the development of acute-on-chronic liver failure in patients with decompensated cirrhosis. Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12325-022-02416-7.
SUBMITTER: Chen C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9848025 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature