Cardiomyopathy in Cirrhotic Patients and Its Relationship with the Severity of Cirrhosis

Abstract

Study Objectives: To determine the frequency of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy in patients with liver cirrhosis and to compare it across varying grades of cirrhosis on Child Turcotte Pugh classification. Study Design and Settings: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried at Department of Medicine, Lahore General Hospital Lahore over 1 year from Jan 2018 to Dec 2018. Patients and Methods: The present research involved 100 male and female patients aged between 16-70 years having liver cirrhosis diagnosed at least 6 months ago. These patients underwent echocardiographic screening of cardiomyopathy which was diagnosed by the presence of diastolic dysfunction (i.e. increased E/A ratio>1). An informed written consent was obtained from every patient. Results of the Study: There was a male predominance (M:F, 1.6:1) among cirrhotic patients with a mean age of 51.9±9.8 years. The mean BMI was 26.5±3.7 Kg/m2 while the mean duration of cirrhosis was 22.0±10.9 months. Majority (49.0%) of the patients belonged to CTP Class C followed by Class-B (39.0%) and Class-A (12.0%). Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy was observed in 41.0% patients with cirrhosis. There was statistically insignificant difference in the observed frequency of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy among various subgroups of cirrhotic patients depending upon patient’s age (p-value=0.928), gender (p-value=0.997), BMI (p-value=0.983) and duration of disease (p-value=0.782). However, it increased considerably with worsening of disease on CTP Classification; Class-A vs. Class-B vs. Class-C (8.3% vs. 35.9% vs. 53.1%; p-value=0.013). Conclusion: Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy was observed in a substantial proportion of cirrhotic patients and was more frequent in patients with more severe disease which warrants routine echocardiographic screening of cirrhotic patients so that timely recognition and anticipated treatment of this complication may improve the case outcome in future medical practice. Keywords: Cirrhosis, Cardiomyopathy, Child Turcotte Pugh Class