title: Esophagogastric varices predict mortality in hospitalized patients with alcoholic liver disease in Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Western countries. The present study investigated the status and the risk factors for predicting mortality of ALD in Taiwan.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospective studied 100 consecutive in patients with ALD between 1992 and 2000. All patients had a history of alcohol consumption exceeding 80 g per day for at least 5 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study comprised 93 men and 7 women with a mean age of 45.4 years. The ALD included fatty liver (21%), alcoholic hepatitis (15%), alcoholic hepatitis superimposed on alcoholic cirrhosis (24%), and alcoholic cirrhosis (40%). Forty-four percent of patients had esophagogastric varices. Thirty-three percent of patients were mortality. The presence of esophagogastric varices was the only parameter identified by univariate and multivariate analyses and had a statistically significant association with increased mortality (OR: 8.603; 95% CI: 2.009-36.864; p = 0.004). The cumulative survival for ALD patients with varices was significantly lower than for patients without varices.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The presence of esophagogastric varices had a statistically significant relationship with increased mortality. This study strongly implicates esophagogastric varices were a valuable poor prognostic factor with mortality. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy is a simple clinical available tool for the assessment of the occurrence of varices to predict the disease severity and mortality in hospitalized patients with ALD.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, E-Da Hospital/I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Chih-Wen
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yaw-Sen
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chung-Hsu
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.forename: Daw-Shyong
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Perng
authors.forename: Hui-Ching
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Jui-Ting
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Yi-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Mei-Yu
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Sien-Sing
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D008108:Liver Diseases, Alcoholic / Q000401:mortality*; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology