Neuropsychiatric dysfunction in patients with chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis.

AIM

The aim of this study is to clarify the cerebral functions in patients with chronic hepatitis (CH) as well as those with liver cirrhosis (LC).

METHODS

We studied 58 patients with CH (20 in fibrosis stage F1, 20 in F2, 18 in F3), 77 with LC (46 rated as Child-Pugh class A, 24 as B, 7 as C), and 20 healthy volunteers (HV). Computer-aided quantitative neuropsychiatric function test systems, including eight neuropsychiatric tests were performed.

RESULTS

Subjects with results over the cut-off value for healthy subjects ranged from 11.1-28.6% in CH and 19.5-36.4% in LC. The percentages with abnormality in at least one test in CH and LC were 72.4% and 80.6%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that in the HV group (35.0%) (P = 0.003, P = 0.0003, respectively). Among CH subjects, those with three or more abnormal results in the F1, F2 and F3 subgroups were 15.0%, 20.0% and 38.9%, respectively. Among LC subjects, those with three or more abnormal results in the Child-Pugh class A, B and C subgroups comprised 30.4%, 50.0% and 57.1%, respectively. The rate in the CH F3 subgroup (P = 0.011) and in all three LC subgroups (P = 0.023, P = 0.001, P = 0.002, respectively) were significantly higher than that in the HV group.

CONCLUSION

The percentage of patients with neuropsychiatric function impairment was high in both LC and CH, especially in stage F3. Neuropsychiatric dysfunction may initiate in CH in a considerable number of patients.