Esophagogastric varices predict mortality in hospitalized patients with alcoholic liver disease in Taiwan.
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.
Lin
Chih-Wen
CW
Division of Gastroenterology, E-Da Hospital/I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan.
Chen
Yaw-Sen
YS
Lai
Chung-Hsu
CH
Perng
Daw-Shyong
DS
Weng
Hui-Ching
HC
Hu
Jui-Ting
JT
Huang
Yi-Wen
YW
Hsu
Mei-Yu
MY
Yang
Sien-Sing
SS
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