The risk for bacterial endocarditis in cirrhotic patients: a population-based 3-year follow-up study.
BACKGROUND
We noted only rare reports of cirrhotic patients with bacterial endocarditis (BE). There is insufficient data on the risk of BE in liver cirrhosis. This is the first national population-based study evaluating the risk of BE in cirrhotic patients.


METHODS
We used the National Health Insurance Database, which is derived from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program. The study cohort comprised 40803 patients with cirrhosis and the comparison cohort consisted of 40841 randomly selected subjects with a similar age and sex distribution.


RESULTS
Of the total 81644 patients, 192 (0.24%) experienced BE during the 3-year follow-up period, 121 patients from the study cohort (0.30% of the cirrhotic patients) and 71 patients from the comparison group (0.17% of non-cirrhotic patients) (p<0.001). After adjusting for patient age, sex, and comorbid disorders, the Cox regression analysis showed that cirrhotic patients had a high risk of BE compared to non-cirrhotic patients during the 3-year follow-up period (hazard ratio 2.04, 95% confidence interval 1.61-2.44, p<0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that liver cirrhosis is a risk factor for the occurrence of BE.
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine, Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Tsung-Hsing
TH
Hung
Yu-Hsi
YH
Hsieh
Kuo-Chih
KC
Tseng
Chih-Chun
CC
Tsai
Chen-Chi
CC
Tsai
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004697:Endocarditis, Bacterial / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology