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Abstract Details
Primary biliary cholangitis has the highest waitlist mortality in patients with cirrhosis and acute on chronic liver failure awaiting liver transplant
Ashwani K Singal12, Robert J Wong3, Rajiv Jalan45, Sumeet Asrani6, Yong-Fang Kuo7
Author information
1Department of Medicine, University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.
2Avera McKennan University Hospital and Transplant Institute, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, USA.
3Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford and Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System, Palo Alto, California, USA.
4Liver Failure Group, Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, UCL Medical School, London, UK.
5European Foundation for the Study of Chronic Liver Failure, Barcelona, Spain.
6Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
7Department of Biostatistics and Preventive Medicine, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA.
Abstract
Background: Data are sparse on etiology specific outcomes on waitlist (WL) and post-transplant outcomes among patients with acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF).
Methods and results: In a retrospective cohort of 14,774 adults from United network for organ sharing (UNOS) database listed for Liver transplantation (LT) with cirrhosis and ACLF (January 2013-June 2019), 40% were due to alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD), followed by hepatitis C virus (HCV) at 20%, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (19%), cryptogenic cirrhosis (7%), autoimmune hepatitis (5%), primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) at 3%, and 2% each for hepatitis B, primary biliary cholangitis (PBC), and metabolic etiology. Using competing risk analysis, cumulative risk of WL mortality was highest for PBC at 20.5% and lowest for PSC at 13.3%, P < .001. Compared with ALD as reference, WL mortality was higher for PBC (1.45 [1.16-1.82]), and similar for other etiologies, P < .001. Of this cohort, 9650 (65.3%) patients received LT, with 1-year. patient survival of 91.6% for PBC, worst for cryptogenic cirrhosis (89.5%) and best for PSC and ALD (93.4%), P < .001.
Conclusion: Among listed candidates with ACLF, those with PBC have highest WL mortality 1-year. post-transplant survival was excellent among recipients for PBC. If these findings are validated in prospective studies, liver disease etiology should be considered for LT selection among patients in ACLF.