Related Experiment Videos
Helicobacter pylori is not a risk factor for hepatic encephalopathy
X Calvet1, C Nogueras, M Roqué
1Medicine and Epidemiology Services, Corporació Sanitària del Parc Taulí, Sabadell, Spain. xcalvet@cspt.es
Background:
Helicobacter pylori infection has been described as a risk factor for hepatic encephalopathy in patients with chronic liver disease although the topic remains controversial.
Aims:
To determine whether Helicobacter pylori infection is an independent predictive factor for encephalopathy in patients with liver cirrhosis.
Methods:
Clinical, epidemiological, analytical and nutritional parameters of 205 patients were collected. Helicobacter pylori infection was determined by serology. Encephalopathy (grade II or higher) was clinically assessed during follow-up. The relationship between each parameter and encephalopathy was analysed by Kaplan-Meier curves and the Log rank test. The most significant parameters underwent multivariate analysis by Cox regression.
Results:
Twenty-five variables were related to encephalopathy in the bivariate analysis. Multivariate analysis selected five independent factors: previous bouts of encephalopathy (Odds ratio 3.79; 95% confidence interval 1.94-7.38), albumin (Odds ratio 0.86; 95% confidence interval 0.80-0.92), tricipital skin fold (Odds ratio 0.79; 95% confidence interval 0.66-0.95) chronic pulmonary disease (Odds ratio 2.78, 95% confidence interval; 1.31-5.92), and on-going alcoholism (Odds ratio 2.62; 95% confidence interval 1.16-5. BB).
Conclusions:
Helicobacter pylori is not an independent risk factor for hepatic encephalopathy.