Abstract
BACKGROUND: Multiple analyses have suggested that osteopontin (OPN) is involved in acute and chronic liver disease. We aimed to investigate the value of serum OPN in predicting the short-term prognosis of patients with hepatitis B-related acute-on-chronic liver failure (HBV-ACLF). METHODS: A total of 205 patients with HBV-ACLF were enrolled in a retrospective study and stratified into survivors and non-survivors according to their 90-day prognosis. Multivariate Cox regression and receiver operating characteristic curves were used to evaluate the predictive value of serum OPN levels for the 90-day prognosis of patients with HBV-ACLF.The prevalence of different OPN levels (<36.8 ng/ml; ≥36.8 ng/ml) and their relationship with 90-day prognosis were investigated. RESULTS: Patients with HBV-ACLF had significantly higher serum OPN levels than patients with HBV-LC, patients with CHB, and healthy subjects. Patients were assigned to low- and high-level OPN groups according to the cut-off value of OPN (36.8 ng/ml). Survival curves revealed that patients with high OPN levels had significantly poorer survival than those with low OPN levels, as determined using Kaplan-Meier analysis. Importantly, Multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that OPN levels were an independent risk factor for 90-day adverse outcomes in patients with HBV-ACLF according to the fully adjusted Model IV. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrated that plasma OPN level is a clinically meaningful biomarker for predicting the short-term prognosis of patients with HBV-ACLF.