Abstract
Objective: To compare the clinical characteristics of patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis and hepatitis B cirrhosis in order to provide a basis for the diagnosis of cryptogenic cirrhosis. Methods: A retrospective study was performed. The clinical data of inpatients with cryptogenic cirrhosis from 2010 to 2020 were collected from Peking University First Hospital. The clinical baseline data were analyzed. Patients with hepatitis B cirrhosis hospitalized during the same period were used as the control group, and 1:1 matching was performed according to the age range (±5 years) and the same year of admission. The basic clinical data between the groups were analyzed. The t-test, X2-test or Mann-Whitney U test was used for intergroup comparison. Results: A total of 232 cases with cryptogenic cirrhosis were collected. A total of 207 cases were collected after excluding cases with missing data, including 95 males (45.9%) and 112 females (54.1%), with a median age of 66 (57-76) years. A total of 182 pairs were matched according to the matching criteria for the control study. Compared with the hepatitis B cirrhosis group, the patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis had higher blood triglycerides (0.89 mmol/L vs. 0.80 mmol/L, P=0.002)and total cholesterol (3.73 mmol/L vs. 3.55 mmol/L, P=0.048), alanine transaminase (21.0 U/L vs. 24.5 U/L, P=0.003) and aspartate transaminase (29.5 U/L vs. 33.0 U/L, P=0.008) were lower, the prothrombin time was shorter (12.4 s vs. 13.0 s, P=0.003), and the INR was lower (1.18 vs. 1.21, P=0.015) with statistically significant differences (P<0.05). The proportion of patients with cryptogenic cirrhosis combined with hepatocellular carcinoma (15.9% vs. 35.7%, P<0.001), hepatic encephalopathy (2.7% vs. 7.7%, P=0.034), and hepatorenal syndrome (1.6% vs. 5.5%, P=0.048),were relatively low, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusions: Cryptogenic cirrhosis at our hospital may be associated with metabolic syndrome and cannot be excluded as a cause of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in some of these patients.