Effect of dietary branched chain amino acids on liver related mortality: Results from a large cohort of North American patients with advanced HCV infection

Branched chain amino acids (BCAA) supplementation may reduce the incidence of liver failure and hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis. We aimed to determine whether long-term dietary intake of BCAA is associated with liver-related mortality in a well-characterized cohort of North American patients with advanced fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis. We performed a retrospective cohort study using extended follow-up data from the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment against Cirrhosis (HALT–C) Trial. The analysis included 656 patients who completed two Food Frequency Questionnaires. The primary exposure was BCAA intake measured in grams (g) per 1000 kilocalories (kcal) of energy intake (range 3.0–34.8 g/1000 kcal). During a median follow-up of 5.0 years, the incidence of liver-related death or transplantation was not significantly different among the four quartiles of BCAA intake before and after adjustment of confounders (AHR 1.02, 95% CI 0.81–1.27, P-value for trend = 0.89). There remains no association when BCAA was modeled as a ratio of BCAA to total protein intake or as absolute BCAA intake. Finally, BCAA intake was not associated with the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, encephalopathy or clinical hepatic decompensation. We concluded that dietary BCAA intake was not associated with liver-related outcomes in HCV-infected patients with advanced fibrosis or compensated cirrhosis. The precise effect of BCAA in patients with liver disease warrants further study.