Source/Disclosures
Published by:
Chowdry M et al. Abstract 781. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; 21-24 May 2022; San Diego (hybrid meeting).
Disclosure: Chowdry does not report any relevant financial information.
SAN DIEGO — Patients with cirrhosis who survived COVID-19 may not have worsening of underlying disease or death in the long term compared to patients with cirrhosis who never contracted COVID-19, according to data from Digestive Disease Week 2022 emerges.
“While previous studies have focused on the clinical outcomes of COVID-19 disease in patients with cirrhosis, there has been little data on the impact of a COVID-19 episode on the course of underlying liver disease in cirrhotic patients.” Monica Chowdhry, MD, Gastroenterologist from West Virginia University, Morgantown, opposite Healio.
Using TriNetX, a multi-agency research network, Chowdhry and colleagues conducted a retrospective study to identify 18,228 patients with compensated cirrhosis who were tested for COVID-19 from January 2020 to December 2020. Among these, 1,217 patients tested positive for COVID-19 and 17,011 patients tested negative and were never diagnosed with COVID-19. The primary endpoints were the risk of cirrhosis decompensation, the need for inpatient/intensive care services, and mortality.
Short-term outcomes in the two groups were compared at 3 months, with those surviving at 3 months followed up to 1 year to determine long-term outcomes. After-propensity score matching results were compared after adjusting for confounding variables such as age, gender, race, diabetes, ischemic heart disease, hypertension, chronic kidney disease, chronic lower respiratory tract disease, and nicotine addiction.
According to the researchers, patients who tested positive for COVID-19 had a significantly higher risk of death after 3 months. This remained high after adjusting the propensity score. In addition, these patients were at higher risk of decompensation and hospitalization or ICU treatment. At 1 year, follow-up showed no increased risk of mortality, decompensation, and hospitalization or ICU care in either the unmatched or matched analysis.
“In this first large study to address this question, we found that while short-term outcomes are poor in patients with cirrhosis who have developed COVID-19, if these patients survive the COVID episode, they are not more likely to develop new decompensation or death 3-12 months than cirrhotic patients who have never had COVID-19,” Chowdhry told Healio.
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