Prevalence Of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy

ObjectiveTo investigate the prevalence of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) in patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis. Analyse the releationship of all these factors with the prevalence of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE).Methods109 patients with chronic hepatitis and126 patients with cirrhosis under went number connection test (NCT) and digit symbol test (DST) at different age range. 105 healthy subjects were taken as normal controls. Examine all patients with liver function(alanine aminotransferases, aspartate aminotransferases, y -glutamyl, transfer- rase,albumin), MELD classification according to liver function ,ammonia, plasma sodium, prothrombin and CT or B-us to test if they have ascites or not.Results①There was insignificant difference of NCT and DST in chronic hepatitis group and control group at different age range (P>0.05). However, there was significant difference in NCT and DST between cirrhosis group and control group, and among each age range of chronic hepatitis group (P<0.01).②The prevalence of MHE was 12.8% in chronic hepatitis group and 49.2% in cirrhosis group. There was significant difference in total prevalence and each prevalence of the different age range (P<0.01).③Logistic regression analysis Showed that the prevalence of MHE was correlated with MELD classification (P<0.01) and low plasma sodium (P<0.05), OR=2.227 of MELD classification was a risk factor, the higher MELD classification, the more risk of the prevalence of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE), low plasma sodium was a relative risk factor, but was not correlated with age, gender, education ,liver function(alanine aminotransferases, aspartate aminotransferases,γ-glutamyl transferase,albumin), ammonia, prothrombin and ascites (P>0.05).Conclusion①The MHE prevalence in chronic hepatitis patients is significantly lower than that of cirrhosis patients. The results of psychometric tests of chronic hepatitis patients are not different from those of normal subjects ,but the results of cirrhosis patients are worse than those of normal subjects and chronic hepatitis patients.②The prevalence of MHE is correlated with the MELD classification (which is a risk factor) and low plasma sodium, but is not correlated with age, gender, education, liver function, ammonia, prothrombin and ascites.