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BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Med.
Sec. Hepatobiliary Diseases
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1475997
This article is part of the Research Topic Treatment and Prognostic Assessment of Liver Cirrhosis and Its Complications, Volume II View all 18 articles

Spleen stiffness measurements during recompensation in patients with acutely decompensated liver cirrhosis: preliminary findings of a pilot study

Provisionally accepted
Dilan Elcin Gülcicegi Dilan Elcin Gülcicegi *Jonathan Hannemann Jonathan Hannemann Martin Buerger Martin Buerger Gabriel Allo Gabriel Allo Eva Dittmann Eva Dittmann Anna Martin Anna Martin Natalie ;. Jaspers Natalie ;. Jaspers Bianca Holzapfel Bianca Holzapfel Chon ;. Seung-Hun Chon ;. Seung-Hun Sonja Lang Sonja Lang Tobias Goeser Tobias Goeser Hans-Michael Steffen Hans-Michael Steffen Philipp Kasper Philipp Kasper *
  • University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Acute decompensation (AD) in patients with liver cirrhosis is associated with a dramatic deterioration in prognosis. Immediate initiation of appropriate recompensation measures is essential to improve patient's outcome, although objective parameters for evaluating the success of recompensation are still lacking. Spleen stiffness measurements (SSM) have emerged as promising non-invasive tool to assess clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH), which is the main driver of acute decompensation. However, while SSM accurately predicts CSPH and its complication, currently no data are available on its diagnostic performance during recompensation. This pilot-study aimed at evaluating changes in spleen stiffness following the initiation of recompensation measures in cirrhotic patients hospitalized due to AD.In this prospective pilot-study, 60 patients with cirrhosis showing AD were included liver stiffness measurements (LSM) and SSM on admission day with repetitive SSM on day 3 and 5, respectively, during recompensation measures. A cohort of patients (n=10) with compensated cirrhosis served as control.Results: 36 data sets from the originally enrolled 60 patients were eligible for final analysis. On admission, patients with AD revealed a significantly increased spleen stiffness compared to the control group (70.51 vs. 29.06 kPa, p<0.0001). Following the initiation of recompensation measures SSM revealed a significant reduction in spleen stiffness compared to the baseline assessment on day 3 (-18.5 kPa, -21.53%; p=0.0002) with no further decrease on day 5 (-17.63 kPa, -21.23%; p=0.0326).Repetitive SSM seems to be a useful non-invasive clinical marker to assess the effectiveness of recompensation measures in cirrhotic patients with AD.

    Keywords: Spleen stiffness, SSM, portal hypertension, Decompensation, Decompensated cirrhosis, CSPH, Recompensation

    Received: 04 Aug 2024; Accepted: 28 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Gülcicegi, Hannemann, Buerger, Allo, Dittmann, Martin, Jaspers, Holzapfel, Seung-Hun, Lang, Goeser, Steffen and Kasper. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Dilan Elcin Gülcicegi, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
    Philipp Kasper, University Hospital of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

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