Predicting mortality in patients with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis using routine inflammatory and biochemical markers.

OBJECTIVES

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a common and high-mortality infectious complication of patients with cirrhosis. New inflammatory markers are associated with morbidity/mortality in various diseases. The aim of our study was to find the 30-day mortality rate of SBP and their predictors.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Seventy patients with cirrhosis complicated with SBP and 55 non-SBP controls were enrolled into the study, and patients were evaluated for mortality rate and its predictors.

RESULTS

The 30-day and 3-month mortality rates in the SBP group were 26.1 and 50.7%, respectively. Mortality rates were higher in the SBP group than in the controls. Symptoms at hospital admission and cell counts in ascitic fluid made no difference in predicting 30-day mortality. Patients with SBP with high serum neutrophil counts, high neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, high C reactive protein (CRP)/albumin ratio, and high model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score had higher 30-day mortality rates. We determined optimal cutoff values of MELD scores and serum neutrophil counts for predicting 30-day mortality as 20.5 and 6850/mm, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity for the MELD cutoff value were 83.3 and 80.4%, respectively. We also followed up patients for 60 months after SBP; the patients with high inflammatory markers and MELD scores at the time of SBP diagnosis had worse survival compared with the group with lower levels.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that SBP has high 30-day mortality. MELD scores and inflammatory markers (CRP, CRP albumin ratio, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio) may be used to predict mortality in patients with SBP.