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Table 1 Etiology of liver disease and composition of the different groups

From: Selective improvement by rifaximin of changes in the immunophenotype in patients who improve minimal hepatic encephalopathy

Parameters

Controls (n=30)

Patients without MHE (n=30)

Patients with MHE (n=22)

Patients with MHE (n=22)

“Responder” patients (n=13)

“Non-responder” patients (n=9)

Before rifaximin

After rifaximin treatment

Before rifaximin

After rifaximin treatment

Gender (M/F)

19/11

24/6

19/3

11/2

 

8/1

 

Age

59 ± 1

61 ± 1

63 ± 2

60 ± 2

 

63 ± 2

 

Alcohol

 

19

12

7

 

5

 

HBV/HCV

 

9

5

4

 

1

 

Others

 

2

5

2

 

3

 

Ascites

 

2

6

2

2

1

1

Child Pugh A/B/C

 

26A/4B

13A/6B/3C

9A/4B

8A/5B

6A/2B/1C

5A/3B/1C

MELD

 

10 ± 1

11 ± 1

10 ± 1

10 ± 1

11 ± 2

12 ± 2

Haemoglobin (g/dL)

14.6 ± 0.2

13.7 ± 0.5

13.1 ± 0.4

13 ± 0.6*

13 ± 0.7*

13.7 ± 0.4

13.4 ± 0.7

Total bilirubin (mg/dL)

0.5 ± 0.03

1.3 ± 0.2**

1.2 ± 0.2*

1.1 ± 0.2*

1.2 ± 0.1*

1.3 ± 0.4*

1.5 ± 0.5*

Albumin (g/dL)

4.5 ± 0.1

3.8 ± 0.2**

3.7 ± 0.1***

3.7 ± 0.2**

3.8 ± 0.2**

3.7 ± 0.2**

3.6 ± 0.4**

ALT (U/L)

23 ± 2

36 ± 3*

33 ± 3

32 ± 4

27 ± 4

29 ± 3

34 ± 3

Sodium (mM)

138 ± 0.3

139 ± 0.7

137 ± 2

136 ± 1

139 ± 1aa

138 ± 3

136 ± 3a

Creatinin (mg/dL)

0.77 ± 0.02

0.78 ± 0.03

0.88 ± 0.05

0.84 ± 0.06

0.81 ± 0.07

0.95 ± 0.11*

0.89 ± 0.15

INR

1.05 ± 0.01

1.34 ± 0.05***

1.22 ± 0.05*

1.19 ± 0.04***

1.28 ± 0.08***

1.24 ± 0.1**

1.21 ± 0.07***

Ammonia (μM)

9 ± 1

27 ± 4*

41 ± 8***

38 ± 11**

34 ± 7*

46 ± 12***

48 ± 13***

  1. Analytical parameters before and after rifaximin treatment in “responder” and “non-responder” patients
  2. Values are expressed as the mean ± SEM
  3. MHE minimal hepatic encephalopathy, HBV hepatitis B virus, HCV hepatitis C virus, MELD model end stage liver disease
  4. Differences between controls and patients were analyzed by one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey’s multiple comparison test. Differences between before and after Rifaximin treatment were analyzed using a Paired t-test. Values significantly different from controls are indicated by *. Values significantly different after vs. before treatment are indicated by a (*/a p < 0.05; **/aa p < 0.01)