Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis Decreases Microsomal Liver Function in the Absence of Fibrosis

The incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rising across the globe, with the presence of steatohepatitis leading to a more aggressive clinical course. Currently, the diagnosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is based on histology, though with the high prevalence of NAFLD, a non-invasive method is needed. The 13C-aminopyrine breath test (ABT) evaluates the microsomal liver function and could be a potential candidate. We aimed to evaluate a potential change in liver function in NASH patients and to evaluate the diagnostic power of ABT to detect NASH. We performed a retrospective analysis on patients suspected of NAFLD who underwent a liver biopsy and ABT. 440 patients were included. ABT did not decrease in patients with isolated liver steatosis but decreased significantly in the presence of NASH without fibrosis and decreased even further with the presence of significant fibrosis. The predictive power of ABT as a single test for NASH was low but improved in combination with ALT and ultrasonographic steatosis. We conclude that microsomal liver function of patients with NASH is significantly decreased, even in the absence of fibrosis. The ABT is thus a valuable tool in assessing the presence of NASH; and could be used as a supplementary diagnostic tool in clinical practice.

Prognostic Value of Metabolic Liver Function Tests: a Study on 711 Cirrhotic Patients

Background & Aims: The prognosis of cirrhotic patients is usually assessed by Child-Pugh and MELD scores. Metabolic liver function tests such as aminopyrine breath test (ABT) and indocyanine green clearance (IGC) have been shown to reveal hepatocellular dysfunction. The aim of this retrospective study was to compare the prognostic value of the MELD score, Child-Pugh score, ABT and IGC in a large cohort of cirrhotic patients. Methods: Between January 1996 and June 2008, 711 cirrhotic patients were included and the primary endpoint was survival without LT. The ROC curves with c-statistics, correlation coefficient and survival were calculated. Results: Metabolic function tests and scores were strongly correlated. At the time of evaluation, 111 patients had died and 520 had received a transplant. Prognostic ability (estimated by the AUROC curve) to predict survival without LT at 6 months was 0.662, 0.691, 0.738 and 0.715 for ABT, IGC, Child-Pugh score and MELD score, respectively. Similarly, at 1 year, AUROC was 0.738 for Child-Pugh score, 0.716 for MELD score, 0.693 for IGC clearance and 0.651 for ABT. Conclusions: Our results strongly confirm that IGC and ABT have a high prognostic value in cirrhotic patients, similar to Child-Pugh and MELD scores. They could be developed to routinely evaluate the prognosis of patients in addition to clinical and biochemical data. Key words: – – – – – – . Abbreviations: ABT: Aminopyrine Breath Test; AUROC: area under the receiver operating characteristics curve; CP score: Child-Pugh score; DRI: deceased donor risk index; IGC: Indocyanine Green Clearance; LT: Liver transplantation; MELD: Model for End stage Liver Disease.