Metabolomics studies identify novel diagnostic and prognostic indicators in patients with alcoholic hepatitis

To identify plasma analytes using metabolomics that correlate with the diagnosis and severity of liver disease in patients with alcoholic hepatitis (AH).

We prospectively recruited patients with cirrhosis from AH (n = 23) and those with cirrhosis with acute decompensation (AD) from etiologies other than alcohol (n = 25). We used mass spectrometry to identify 29 metabolic compounds in plasma samples from fasted subjects. A receiver operating characteristics analysis was performed to assess the utility of biomarkers in distinguishing acute AH from alcoholic cirrhosis. Logistic regression analysis was performed to build a predictive model for AH based on clinical characteristics. A survival analysis was used to construct Kaplan Meier curves evaluating transplant-free survival.

A comparison of model for end-stage liver disease (MELD)-adjusted metabolomics levels between cirrhosis patients who had AD or AH showed that patients with AH had significantly higher levels of betaine, and lower creatinine, phenylalanine, homocitrulline, citrulline, tyrosine, octenoyl-carnitine, and symmetric dimethylarginine. When considering combined levels, betaine and citrulline were highly accurate predictors for differentiation between AH and AD (area under receiver operating characteristics curve = 0.84). The plasma levels of carnitine [0.54 (0.18, 0.91); P = 0.005], homocitrulline [0.66 (0.34, 0.99); P < 0.001] and pentanoyl-carnitine [0.53 (0.16, 0.90); P = 0.007] correlated with MELD scores in patients diagnosed with AH. Increased levels of many biomarkers (carnitine P = 0.005, butyrobetaine P = 0.32, homocitrulline P = 0.002, leucine P = 0.027, valine P = 0.024, phenylalanine P = 0.037, tyrosine P = 0.012, acetyl-carnitine P = 0.006, propionyl-carnitine P = 0.03, butyryl-carnitine P = 0.03, trimethyl-lisine P = 0.034, pentanoyl-carnitine P = 0.03, hexanoyl-carnitine P = 0.026) were associated with increased mortality in patients with AH.

Metabolomics plasma analyte levels might be used to diagnose of AH or help predict patient prognoses.