Huapeng Lin, Grace Lai-Hung Wong, Xinrong Zhang, Terry Cheuk-Fung Yip, Ken Liu, Yee Kit Tse, Vicki Wing-Ki Hui, Jimmy Che-To Lai, Henry Lik-Yuen Chan, Vincent Wai-Sun Wong
Clin Mol Hepatol 2022;28(1):77-90. Published online November 5, 2021
Background/Aims We aimed to determine the association between blood urea level and incident cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation, and hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic liver disease (CLD) patients.
Methods The association between blood urea level and liver fibrosis/liver-related events were evaluated on continuous scale with restricted cubic spline curves based on generalized additive model or Cox proportional hazards models. Then, the above associations were evaluated by urea level within intervals.
Results Among 4,282 patients who had undergone liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography, baseline urea level had a U-shaped association with LSM and hepatic decompensation development after a median follow-up of 5.5 years. Compared to patients with urea of 3.6–9.9 mmol/L, those with urea ≤3.5 mmol/L (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 4.15; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.68–10.24) and ≥10 mmol/L (aHR, 5.22; 95% CI, 1.86–14.67) had higher risk of hepatic decompensation. Patients with urea ≤3.5 mmol/L also had higher risk of incident cirrhosis (aHR, 3.24; 95% CI, 1.50–6.98). The association between low urea level and incident cirrhosis and hepatic decompensation was consistently observed in subgroups by age, gender, albumin level, and comorbidities. The U-shaped relationship between urea level and LSM was validated in another population screening study (n=917). Likewise, urea ≤3.5 mmol/L was associated with a higher risk of incident cirrhosis in a territory-wide cohort of 12,476 patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease at a median follow-up of 9.9 years (aHR, 1.27; 95% CI, 1.03–1.57).
Conclusions We identified a U-shaped relationship between the urea level and liver fibrosis/incident cirrhosis/hepatic decompensation in patients with CLD.
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