Hemorheological Alteration in Patients Clinically Diagnosed with Chronic Liver Diseases = Hemorheological Alteration in Patients Clinically Diagnosed with Chronic Liver Diseases

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aims: Blood viscosity is predominantly determined by hematocrit, plasma viscosity, and the aggregation of red blood cells. We investigated the level of whole blood viscosity in patients with chronic liver diseases (CLD). Methods: A total of 320 patients whose whole blood viscosity (WBV) had been measured between August 2015 and April 2016 at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. Plasma WBV was measured using a scanning capillary tube viscometer at a high shear rate (systolic) and a low shear rate (diastolic). Among them, 151 patients were clinically diagnosed with CLD based on clinical in- formation and imaging study. We investigated the CBC, blood chemistry, and lipid profiles of these patients. Reference values for whole blood viscosity of normal controls were adapted from a previous report (Jung et al. Clinical Biochemistry 2014;47:489-493). Results: Chronic liver diseases were categorized into 3 groups : fatty liver (n=46), chronic hepatitis (n=70) and liver cirrhosis (n=35). Systolic blood viscosities (SBV) of plasma whole blood viscosity were 5.25 centipoise (cP), 5.03cP, 4.44cP in fatty liver, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, respectively. Diastolic blood viscosities (DBV) were 16.65 cP, 15.98 cP, 13.81 cP in fatty liver, chronic hepatitis and liver cirrhosis, respectively. These results indicated that the levels of blood viscosity were increased in CLD compared with healthy control. Regarding the blood viscosity according to the etiology of CLD, those were significantly lower in HBV- and HCV-related CLDs than NAFLD and alcoholic liver disease. Among CLDs, the level of the WBV in liver cirrhosis was the lowest (P<0.05). Conclusions: The level of whole blood viscosity of patients with chronic liver diseases was higher than that of normal controls. These result suggest that blood viscosity test may be useful tool to predict the prognosis of chronic liver diseases.