Abstract
Objectives: Patients with Fontan circulation exhibit a high incidence of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis. Transient elastography (TE) and the enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF) test have proven useful as noninvasive surrogate markers of liver fibrosis for other chronic liver diseases. We evaluated whether TE and the ELF score can predict the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with Fontan circulation. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 45 adult patients with at least 10 years of Fontan duration who had undergone liver biopsy and investigated the relation between the fibrosis stage and TE and the ELF test results. Additionally, the association of these variables and other biochemical and hemodynamic parameters was assessed. Results: The mean age was 25.9 years and the mean Fontan duration was 20.8 years. Advanced liver fibrosis was present in 36 (80.0%) patients. TE or ELF score are comparable for patients with and without advanced liver fibrosis (mean 23.3 vs 24.8 kPa [P = .85] for TE; mean 8.94 vs 9.25 [P = .44] for the ELF score). However, N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide level and ventricular end-diastolic pressure were higher in patients with advanced liver fibrosis (mean 224 vs 80 pg/mL [P < .01]; and mean 12 vs 9 mm Hg [P = .04], respectively). No independent predictor of advanced liver fibrosis was found in multivariate analysis. Conclusions: TE and the ELF score were unable to predict the degree of liver fibrosis in Fontan patients. Liver biopsy remains as the only valid method to assess fibrotic burden in this population.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1176-1185.e3 |
| Journal | Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery |
| Volume | 164 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 Oct |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Seung Up Kim received grant support from the National Research Foundation of Korea . All other authors reported no conflicts of interest.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning ( 2019R1A2C4070136 ). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the report.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Surgery
- Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine