Acute-On-Chronic Liver Failure ; mortality ; Cause of Death ; Hepatitis B, Chronic ; mortality ; Humans

ObjectiveTo investigate the clinical features of infection in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) and bacterial infection and the influencing factors for 90-day survival rate. MethodsThe patients with ACLF who were admitted to The Fifth Medical Center of Chinese PLA General Hospital from January 2014 to December 2015 were enrolled, and related clinical data were collected and analyzed, including infection time and site, microbial culture, biochemical parameters and inflammatory markers, and 28- and 90-day prognosis after infection. The t-test or the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of continuous data between two groups, and the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between two groups. The life-table method was used to plot survival curves. The indices affecting prognosis in the univariate analysis were further included in the multivariate logistic regression analysis. ResultsA total of 1074 patients with ACLF were admitted, among whom 609 had bacterial infection, and the incidence rate of bacterial infection was 567%. Among these 609 patients, 16 underwent liver transplantation within 90 days and related data statistics were obtained for the remaining 593 patients. As for infection site, among the patients with infection, 70.15% had abdominal infection, 41.15% had pulmonary infection, 11.97% had sepsis, 5.40% had urinary system infection, 4.89% had thoracic infection, and 8.6% had infection at other sites. Among the patients with infection, 64.76% had infection at a single site. The positive rates of microbial culture of ascites, phlegm, urine, and pleural effusion were 22.70%, 52.82%, 40.63%, and 35.71%, respectively. Escherichia coli was the most common bacterium in ascites and accounted for 43.82%; Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Acinetobacter baumannii accounted for 22.67%, 2400%, and 22.67%, respectively, in phlegm; Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Staphylococcaceae accounted for 33.80%, 29.58%, and 15.49%, respectively, in blood culture. The 90-day survival rate after infection was 38.11% (226/593) in the patients with ACLF, and the multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age (P=0.006), stage of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) (P＜0001), stage of liver failure (P＜0.001), and acute kidney injury (AKI) (P＜0.001) were independent risk factors for 90-day survival in patients with ACLF and infection. ConclusionThere is a high incidence rate of infection in patients with ACLF. The 90-day survival rate is relatively low, and the presence of AKI, HE stage III or above, and advanced liver failure may indicate poor prognosis.

Objective:To investigate the incidence rate, influencing factors and prognosis of infection-induced acute renal injury (AKI) in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF).Methods:516 cases with acute-on-chronic liver failure complicated with infection that were hospitalized in our hospital during 2014 to 2016 were retrospectively studied. General conditions and clinical characteristics of the patients were collected, and grouped according to the presence or absence of incidence and severity of AKI. General conditions, laboratory results, occurrence of complications and survival were compared and analyzed.Results:The main causes were HBV infection (67.8%) and alcoholic liver disease (20.0%). The most common sites of infection were abdominal cavity, lung and blood. Multivariate analysis showed that neutrophil count, TBIL, lactate and septic shock were independent risk factors for infection-induced AKI in ACLF patients. The cumulative mortality in patients with AKI after infection at 28, 90 and 360 days was significantly higher than those without AKI (51.6% and 20.5%, 70.2% and 40.3%, 73.4% and 45.9%; P < 0.01). In both groups, deaths had occurred mainly in the early (0 ~ 28 d) and middle (29 ~ 90 d) stage of follow-up period. In the late follow-up period (91-360 d), there was no statistically significant difference in mortality rate between the two groups. Conclusion:Infection is an important inducing cause of AKI in ACLF patients. The underlying liver disease and the severity of infection are significantly related to the infection-induced AKI in ACLF patients, and once AKI occurs after infection, the mortality rate of the patients is significantly increased.

Objective:To explore the predictive value of lactic acid for the adverse prognostic outcomes in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure combined with infection.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 208 cases of ACLF combined with infection who were hospitalized from January 2014 to March 2016. Patients were divided into a survival group ( n = 83) and a mortality group ( n = 125) according to the results of a 90-day follow-up. The clinical data were statistically analyzed between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression with two categorical variables was used to analyze the independent risk factors for 90-day disease mortality and establish a new prediction model. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC curve) was used to evaluate the predictive value of lactic acid, the MELD score, the MELD-Na score, lactic acid combined with the MELD score, lactic acid combined with the MELD-Na score, and the new model. Results:The 90-day mortality rate of 208 cases of ACLF combined with infection was 60.1%. There were statistically significant differences in white blood cell count, neutrophil count, total bilirubin (TBil), serum creatinine (Cr), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), blood ammonia, the international normalized ratio (INR), lactic acid (LAC), procalcitonin, the MELD score, the MELD-Na score, hepatic encephalopathy (HE), acute kidney injury (AKI), and bleeding between the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that TBil, INR, LAC, HE, and bleeding were independent risk factors for 90-day mortality in patients with ACLF combined with infection. After the establishment of MELD-LAC, MELD-Na-LAC, and a new prediction model, the ROC curve revealed that the AUC (95% confidence interval) of MELD-LAC and MELD-Na LAC were 0.819 (0.759 ~ 0.870) and 0.838 (0.780 ~ 0.886), respectively, and was superior than the MELD score [0.766 (0.702 ~ 0.823)] and MELD-Na score [0.788 (0.726 ~ 0.843)], with P < 0.05, while the new model had an AUC of 0.924, the sensitivity of 83.9%, specificity of 89.9%, and accuracy of 87.8%, which was higher than LAC, MELD score, MELD-Na score, MELD-LAC, and MELD-Na-LAC ( P < 0.01). Conclusion:Lactic acid is an independent risk factor for mortality in patients with ACLF combined with infection, and it improves the clinical predictive value of MELD and MELD-Na for the prognosis of mortality.