Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a clinical disease significantly different from acute liver failure and acute decompensation of simple liver cirrhosis, and it may have acute progression to liver failure and failure of other organs. ACLF has a high short-term mortality rate and has become a disease burden worldwide. In recent years, several international associations for the study of the liver have proposed different diagnostic criteria for ACLF and published their respective consensus or review on the diagnosis and treatment of ACLF, and there are still great differences in the comprehension of chronic liver diseases, acute injury, and organ failure. At present, there are still limited data for the key links of ACLF management in China, such as liver transplantation, intensive care unit, and palliative care, and in the context of no consensus on the diagnosis of ACLF around the world, it is necessary to further strengthen the application of existing international criteria and evidence and the accumulation of evidence-based data in China.

Objective:To translate the Pressure Ulcer Quality of Life Questionnaire (PU-QOL) into Chinese and test its reliability and validity.Methods:The PU-QOL was translated, back translated, cross-cultural debugged and pre-investigated to form the Chinese version of PU-QOL. From August 2020 to November 2021, 405 patients with PU in wound clinics of two third-class hospitals in north and south regions of China were conveniently selected as the research objects.Results:The Chinese version of PU-QOL had 74 items. The content validity of the items was 0.80 to 1.00 and the content validity of the scale level was 0.95. Exploratory factor analysis extracted 7 common factors and the cumulative variance contribution rate was 60.79%. Each problem area is moderately correlated with the 12-Item Short Form Survey (SF-12), and the correlation coefficient between each dimension (0.13-0.28) was less than the correlation coefficient between each dimension and the total score of the scale and the difference was statistically significant( P<0.01). The Cronbach′s α coefficient was 0.84 and the retest reliability was 0.92. Conclusions:The Chinese version of PU-QOL questionnaire was proved to be a good instrument with acceptable reliability and validity, which can be used as a tool for evaluating quality of life of patients with PU in China.

Objective To observe the clinical features and evaluate the risk factors affecting prognosis in patients with secondary sepsis of gastrointestinal perforation (GIP). Methods A retrospective cohort study was conducted, and the patients with GIP admitted to the Department of General Surgery of Affiliated Shuyang People's Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from January 1, 2014 to April 30, 2017 were enrolled, according to the presence or absence of sepsis occurrence, they were divided into GIP with and GIP without sepsis groups. The difference of gender, age, the time between the onset of GIP and the occurrence of sepsis, infection situation, body temperature, heart rate, respiratory frequency, white blood cell count (WBC), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) in accord with standard, C-reactive protein (CRP), blood sugar, mean arterial pressure (MAP), lactic acid, number of cases having undergone laparoscopic surgery, sequential organ failure score (SOFA) and quick sequential organ failure score (qSOFA), Glasgow coma score(GCS), length of stay in intensive care unit (ICU), the total length of stay in hospital were compared;the status of survival and prognosis was assessed on day 30 by the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS). The indicators with statistical significance in the two groups were brought into the Cox regression model to analyze the independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of the patients. Results Fifty-eight patients with GIP were enrolled in this study. Among them, 22 cases developed secondary sepsis (GIP with sepsis group, there were 50.0% cases with single organ failure and 50.0% cases with multiple-organ failure, cases only in accord with 0-1 SIRS criteria accounting for 81.8%, and the mortality of secondary sepsis being 31.8%). No sepsis occurred in 36 patients (GIP without sepsis group). In GIP with sepsis group, the age, blood glucose, lactic acid, SOFA score, qSOFA, and the length of stay in ICU were significantly higher than those of GIP without sepsis group [age (years): 68.7±15.9 vs. 56.1±17.2, blood glucose (mmol/L): 6.9±2.3 vs. 5.9±1.2, lactic acid (mmol/L): 2.9±1.3 vs. 1.2±0.7, SOFA score: 5.6±3.2 vs. 0.5±0.4, qSOFA score: 1.0±0.9 vs. 0.3±0.1, the length of stay in ICU (days): 1.0 (0-4.0) vs. 0.1 (0-2.0), all P < 0.05], while MAP, GCS, and GOS scores in GIP with sepsis group were significantly lower than those in GIP without sepsis group [MAP (mmHg, 1 mmHg =0.133 kPa): 83.6±18.7 vs. 100.0±14.3, GCS score: 12.8±3.5 vs. 14.5±0.5, GOS score: 3.5±1.9 vs. 4.9±0.2, all P < 0.01]. Cox multivariable regression analysis showed: only low MAP and low GCS score were the independent risk predictors of death outcome for GIP with sepsis, the relative risk (RR) was 0.896 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.815-0.984, P = 0.022] and 0.585 (95%CI = 0.395-0.866, P = 0.007) respectively. Conclusion Patients with secondary sepsis following GIP have relatively high morbidity and much more risk factors, but only low MAP and low GCS score are closely associated with its high risk of death.

Objective:To investigate the diagnostic value of independent and combined subtests of the psychometric hepatic encephalopathy score (PHES) in mild hepatic encephalopathy(MHE) of patients with liver cirrhosis, so as to optimize the PHES.Methods:This was a prospective, multicenter and real-world study which was sponsored by the National Clinical Research Center of Infectious Diseases and the Portal Hypertension Consortium. Twenty-six hospitals from 13 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities countrywide participated in this study, induding Tianjin Third Central Hospital, the Fourth People′s Hospital of Qinghai Province, the Second Affiliated Hospital of Baotou Medical College, the Third People′s Hospital of Taiyuan, the Fifth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital and so on. From October 2021 to February 2022, outpatients and hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis and no obvious hepatic encephalopathy were consecutively enrolled. All patients received 5 PHES subjects in the same order: number connection test(NCT)-A, NCT-B, digit symbol test(DST), line tracing test(LTT) and serial dotting test(SDT), and the scores were calculated. The total score of PHES <-4 was taken as the cut-off value for diagnosing MHE. Compare the differences in each subtest between MHE group and non-MHE group. Receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC) and area under the curve(AUC) was performed to assess the diagnostic value of independent and combined subtests in MHE. Mann-Whitney U test and DeLong test were used for statistical analysis. Results:A total of 581 patients with liver cirrhosis were enrolled, 457 were diagnosed as MHE, and the incidence of MHE was 78.7%. The results of NCT-A, NCT-B, SDT, LTT, DST of MHE group were 60.00 s(47.01 s, 88.00 s), 90.45 s(69.32 s, 125.35 s), 74.00 s(57.65 s, 96.60 s), 74.72(60.00, 98.61) and 27.00(20.00, 36.00), respectively. Compared those of non-MHE group(34.00 s(29.15 s, 44.48 s), 50.00 s(40.98 s, 60.77 s), 50.00 s(41.07 s, 63.03 s), 46.23(38.55, 59.42) and 42.00(34.00, 50.75)), the differences were statistically significant( Z=12.37, 12.98, 9.83, 11.56, 10.66; all P<0.001). The AUC(95% confidence interval(95% CI)) of subtests of PHES NCT-B, NCT-A, LTT, DST and SDT alone in MHE diagnosis were 0.880(0.849 to 0.910), 0.862(0.828 to 0.896), 0.838(0.799 to 0.877), 0.812(0.772 to 0.851) and 0.788(0.743 to 0.832), respectively. The combination of 2 PHES subtests significantly increased the diagnostic efficacy. Among them the diagnostic efficacy of the combination of NCT-B and LTT was the best, the AUC(95% CI) was 0.924(0.902 to 0.947), the specificity was 91.9% and the sensitivity was 79.2%, which was better than a single PHES subtest (NCT-A, NCT-B, SDT, LTT and DST) and the combination of NCT-A and DST(AUC was 0.879, 95% CI0.847 to 0.910) which was recommended by guidelines on the management of hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhosis, the differences were statistically significant ( Z=3.78, 3.83, 5.57, 5.51, 5.38, 2.93; all P<0.01). Furthermore, compared between the combination of NCT-B and LTT and the combination of 3 subests of PHES, only the diagnostic efficacy of combination of NCT-B, LTT and SDT (AUC was 0.936, 95% CI 0.916 to 0.956) was better than that of the combination of NCT-B and LTT, the difference was statistically significant( Z=2.32, P=0.020). Conclusion:Based on the diagnostic efficacy and clinical feasibility of PHES subtests and their combinations, the combination of NCT-B and LTT is recommended for the diagnosis of MHE.