Title: Effect of endotoxin in ascites formation of liver cirrhosis
Abstract: Objective To detect endotoxin (ETX) level in the serum and ascites of patients with liver cirrhosis, and to explore the intrinsic links with the formation of ascites. Methods The study recruited ten patients of compensatory liver cirrhosis patients (the control group) and 80 patietns of hepatitis or alcoholic cirrhosis with ascites in our hospital from January 2011 to June 2012, including 50 patients of ascites with no obvious infectious symptoms (SA group) and 30 patients of ascites with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP group). The fasting peripheral venous blood and ascites specimens were extracted from patients of each group at different time points to detect endotoxin levels and made bacteria culture of ascites. SPSS17.0 statistical software was applied to deal with the differences of endotoxin among each group. It was considered statistically significant when P was less than 0.05. Results Before treatment, endotoxin values of serum and ascites were (0.108±0.034) U/L and (26.1±3.2) U/L in SA group, (0.418±0.044) U/L and (1286.1±98.3) U/L in SBP group, respectively. Statistical results showed that endotoxin levels in SA group and SBP group were significantly higher than those in the control group [(0.025±0.004) U/L], F=201.04, P0.001), and the level in SBP group was significantly higher than that in SA group (t=12.78, P0.001). Toxin level of ascite were correlated with the severity of liver cirrhosis (r=7.12, P0.05). Bacteria culture results of ascites were positive (30% ), which revealed the occult infection did exist in patients of liver cirrhosis with ascites. Conclusion The elevated endotoxin level in serum or ascites of patients of liver cirrhosis may be related to the severity of the disease. The occult infection does exist in patients with ascites but with no infectious symptoms.
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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