Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Jan 27, 2018; 10(1): 73-81
Published online Jan 27, 2018. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v10.i1.73
Collagen proportionate area correlates to hepatic venous pressure gradient in non-abstinent cirrhotic patients with alcoholic liver disease
Sophie Restellini, Nicolas Goossens, Sophie Clément, Nicolas Lanthier, Francesco Negro, Laura Rubbia-Brandt, Laurent Spahr
Sophie Restellini, Nicolas Goossens, Francesco Negro, Laurent Spahr, Department of Medical Specialties, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
Sophie Clément, Francesco Negro, Laura Rubbia-Brandt, Department of Genetic and Laboratory Medicine, Division of Clinical Pathology, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, Geneva 1205, Switzerland
Nicolas Lanthier, Laboratory of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Institut de Recherche Expérimentale et Clinique, Université catholique de Louvain, Brussels 1200, Belgium
Author contributions: Restellini S and Goossens N contributed equally to this work; Restellini S, Goossens N, Lanthier N, and Spahr L contributed to acquisition of data; Restellini S, Goossens N, and Spahr L contributed to drafting of the article; all of the authors contributed to conception and design, analysis and interpretation of the data, critical revision of the article for important intellectual content, and final approval of the article.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Geneva University Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: Due to the retrospective, non-interventional nature of the study and in view of the irreversible anonymization of all clinical specimens and data, the requirement form informed consent was not required by the ethics committee of Geneva’s University Hospitals and University of Geneva as per local guidelines at time of the study submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no relevant conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Laurent Spahr, MD, Professor, Department of Medical Specialties, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Geneva University Hospitals and University of Geneva, 4, Rue Gabrielle Perret-Gentil, Geneva 1205, Switzerland. laurent.spahr@hcuge.ch
Telephone: +41-223-729340 Fax: +41-223-729366
Received: November 21, 2017
Peer-review started: November 22, 2017
First decision: December 7, 2017
Revised: December 15, 2017
Accepted: January 9, 2018
Article in press: January 9, 2018
Published online: January 27, 2018
Abstract
AIM

To explore the relationship between collagen proportionate area (CPA) and portal hypertension-related clinical manifestations in alcoholic liver disease (ALD).

METHODS

Retrospective study with chart review of patients with ALD adressed to our center between January 2012 and December 2013 for a transjugular liver biopsy (TJLB) and hepatic hemodynamic study. Patients were included if they met the following criteria: (1) Medical indication for a liver biopsy in the setting of ALD; (2) recent (< 15 d) clinical, radiological, endoscopic and biological data available; and (3) estimated follow-up of at least 6 mo. Liver tissue from cirrhotic subjects obtained from transjugular liver biopsies was stained with PicroSirius red and computer-assisted digital image analysis to determine fibrosis density using CPA was performed.

RESULTS

We included 61 patients with alcoholic ALD, subdivided in 41 active alcohol drinkers and 20 durably abstinent patients. Nine healthy liver donors served as controls. Mean CPA in patients with ALD was 7.1%, with no difference between active drinkers and abstinent patients (P = 0.17). Using a fibrosis density cutoff of 5%, we observed a positive correlation between high fibrosis density and the hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) only in active drinkers (P = 0.02). At 12-mo of follow-up, in the group of active alcohol drinkers, patients reaching a composite outcome showed a higher HVPG value as compared to those who did not (18.5 mmHg vs 14.5 mmHg P < 0.04) whereas CPA values were similar (6.9% vs 11%, P = 0.23).

CONCLUSION

In active alcoholic ALD, CPA correlates to portal pressure but only HVPG predicts clinical events, pointing to the role of alcohol as a modulator of portal hypertension.

Keywords: Fibrosis, Hepatic venous pressure gradient, Cirrhosis, Chronic advanced liver disease, Collagen proportionate area

Core tip: This is the first study exploring the relationships between fibrosis density assessed by collagen proportionate area (CPA) in liver biopsy, hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) and development of clinical manifestations of portal hypertension in patients with chronic advanced alcoholic liver disease addressed for liver investigations. The results suggest a positive correlation between high fibrosis density and the HVPG only in active drinkers. HVPG, but not CPA, predicts clinical events in active alcohol drinkers pointing to the role of alcohol as a modulator of portal hypertension.