Author information
1Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Virginia Commonwealth University and McGuire VA Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Poor brain reserve in alcoholic cirrhosis could worsen insight regarding disease severity and increase the patients' vulnerability towards further deterioration.
AIM:
To analyze brain reserve in abstinent alcoholic (Alc) compared to non-alcoholic (Nalc) cirrhosis patients in the context of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) and evaluate relative change in brain reserve between groups over time and before/after elective TIPS placement.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional study: 46 Alc and 102 Nalc outpatients with or without HE. Cognitive tests followed by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging including 1-H MR Spectroscopy (MRS), Diffusion tensor (DTI) and T1-weighted imaging. Prospective study: MRS on subset of 10 patients before/after TIPS placement. Another subset of 26 patients underwent MRS at least one year apart.
RESULTS:
Cross-sectional study: Alc patients were worse on cognitive tests than Nalc. MR results suggest a greater effect of hyperammonemia, brain edema and significantly higher cortical damage in Alc as compared to Nalc patients. Effect of HE status on cognitive tests and brain reserve was more marked in Nalc than in Alc group. TIPS study: Nalc patients showed a greater adverse relative change after TIPS compared to Alc group. 1-year follow-up: Both groups remained stable between the two visits. However, Alc patients continued to show poor brain reserve than Nalc over time.
CONCLUSIONS:
Patients with alcoholic cirrhosis, despite abstinence, have a poor brain reserve while, non-alcoholic cirrhosis patients have a greater potential for brain reserve deterioration after HE and TIPS. Information regarding the brain reserve in cirrhosis could assist medical teams to refine their communication and monitoring strategies for different etiologies.