Alcohol Consumption by Cirrhotic Subjects: Patterns of Use and Effects on Liver FunctionAm J Gastroenterol 2008;103:1698–1706
We investigated patterns of use of alcohol and its clinical effects among cirrhotic subjects who participated in a randomized clinical trial comparing the efficacy of transjugular intravenous portosystemic shunt and distal splenorenal shunt.
Twenty-eight subjects (21%) were drinking at study entry and 60 subjects (45%) drank during follow-up. Heavy drinking (>4 drinks/day) was recorded in 25 ALD subjects, but in no non-ALD subjects (P <>P <>vs 30%), ascites (33% vs 20%), encephalopathy (56% vs 42%), and variceal bleeding (11% vs 3%) were greater in the ALD group. In a Cox proportional hazards model only “ever heavy drinking” was associated with death (P = 0.0099), while recent heavy drinking increased the hazard of variceal hemorrhage dramatically (odds ratio 10.85).
Whereas most cirrhotic subjects, alcoholic or not, did not drink during 5 yr of observation, heavy alcohol use occurred exclusively in ALD patients. Alcohol use by ALD subjects was associated with elevations in GGT and was linked to death and with rebleeding from shunt dysfunction.
Request Reprint E-Mail: mrl@medicine.wisc.edu
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