Lipid disorders in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis

The most common causes of liver cirrhosis are chronic alcoholism and hepatitis C. Child-Pugh (Ch-P) score is a classification of the severity of cirrhosis. In the course of cirrhosis plenty of metabolic disorders appear. The aim of the research was to analyze lipid disorders in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis depending on the severity of hepatic cell damage according to the Child-Pugh classification. 152 patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis, who were hospitalized in the internal medicine ward, were qualified for the research. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to the Child–Pugh classification. In the analyzed group, there were 22 persons in class A, 56 in class B and 74 in class C. The levels of the lipids were measured in all patients. HDL-cholesterol concentration in patients with cirrhosis in class A according to the Ch-P score was statistically higher than in the subjects in class B or C. LDL-cholesterol level was significantly higher in patients from group A Ch-P classification than from group C. There was no statistically significant difference in total cholesterol and triglycerides level between patients from groups A, B and C of the Ch-P score. The hepatic cell damage leads to the diminution of the HDL and LDL-cholesterol levels in patients with alcoholic liver cirrhosis. There was no statistically significant difference between all groups of subjects classified according to the Ch-P classification in serum total cholesterol and triglycerides levels.