Impact of sepsis and non-communicable diseases on prognostic models to predict the outcome of hospitalized chronic liver disease patients

AIM: To evaluate the impact of sepsis and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) on the outcome of decompensated chronic liver disease (CLD) patients. METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, medical records of patients with CLD admitted to the Gastroenterology unit at the Aga Khan University Hospital were reviewed. Patients older than 18 years with decompensation of CLD (i.e., jaundice, ascites, encephalopathy, and/or upper gastrointestinal bleed) as the primary reason for admission were included, while those who were admitted for reasons other than decompensation of CLD were excluded. Each patient was followed for 6 wk after index admission to assess mortality, prolonged hospital stay (> 5 d), and early readmission (within 7 d). RESULTS: A total of 399 patients were enrolled. The mean age was 54.3 ± 11.7 years and 64.6% (n = 258) were male. Six-week mortality was 13% (n = 52). Prolonged hospital stay and readmission were present in 18% (n = 72) and 7% (n = 28) of patients, respectively. NCDs were found in 47.4% (n = 189) of patients. Acute kidney injury, sepsis, and non-ST elevation myocardial infarction were found in 41% (n = 165), 17.5% (n = 70), and 1.75% (n = 7) of patients, respectively. Upon multivariate analysis, acute kidney injury, non-ST elevation myocardial infarction, sepsis, and coagulopathy were found to be statistically significant predictors of mortality. While chronic kidney disease (CKD), low albumin, and high Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD)-Na score were found to be statistically significant predictors of morbidity. Addition of sepsis in conventional MELD score predicted mortality even better than MELD-Na (area under receiver operating characteristic: 0.735 vs 0.686; P < 0.001). Among NCDs, CKD was found to increase morbidity independently. CONCLUSION: Addition of sepsis improved the predictability of MELD score as a prognostic marker for mortality in patients with CLD. Presence of CKD increases the morbidity of patients with CLD.