Risk factors profile for liver damage in cardiac inpatients

Abstract

Background/Aim. Liver damage is not an infrequent occurrence in hospitalized cardiology patients, with potentially serious consequences. The aim of our study was to investigate the risk factor profile for liver damage in patients hospitalized from a deterioration of their acute or chronic cardiac illness. Methods. The study had observational case-control design with retrospective data collections from medical files of adult patients from tertiary care center. The cases (n=140) were subjects with novel liver injury (which emerged during hospital stay) and three control subjects were matched (age, date) for each case subject (n=420). The primary outcome was hepatotoxicity (present or absent) and independent variables were proposed risks. Statistical analysis included descriptive methods, hypothesis testing and univariable and multivariable binary logistic regression, with p0.05. Results. In the whole study population, there were 432 females (77.1%) and the mean age of patients was 64.1 years (SD=10.7, range 24-85). The most common illnesses were coronary heart disease (385 patients), hypertension (334) and arrhythmia (115). Mean value of Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) score was 3.8 (SD=1.7, 1-10) corresponding to estimated CCI 10-years survival rate of 54.4% (SD=33.5%). In the group of cases, 114 (81.4%) patients had hepatocellular, 9 (6.4%) cholestatic and 17 (12.2%) mixed type of hepatic injury. The factors independently associated with hepatotoxic event were previous occasional alcohol intake (