Non invasive blood flow measurement in cerebellum detects minimal hepatic encephalopathy earlier than psychometric tests

Table 1 Composition of the groups and clinical data (mean ± SD)

	Range	Control	Patients without MHE	Patients with MHE
Total individuals		14	24	16
Age		55 ± 9	58 ± 6	65 ± 9
Alcohol			24	16
Ascitis			2	5
Child Pugh A/B/C			21/3/0	11/3/2
MELD			8.9 ± 3.5	9.5 ± 3.4
AST (mU/mL)	1-37	20 ± 4.0	73 ± 56b	82.5 ± 58b
ALT (mU/mL)	1-41	18 ± 6.0	77 ± 24b	90.1 ± 24b
GGT (mU/mL)	10-49	26.7 ± 5.0	86.4 ± 60b	106 ± 64b
Uric acid (mg/dL)	2.5-7	4.0 ± 1.0	6.2 ± 2.0	5.73 ± 2.3
Creatinine (mg/dL)	0.5-1.3	0.92 ± 0.1	1.1 ± 0.2	1.2 ± 0.2
Cholesterol (mg/dL)	140-200	172 ± 22	175 ± 44	167 ± 55
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	40-160	95 ± 32	111 ± 64	119 ± 64
Bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.1-1	0.6 ± 0.2	1.7 ± 0.7b	2.3 ± 0.6b
Albumin (g/dL)	3.5-5	4.4 ± 0.2	3.7 ± 0.6b	2.9 ± 0.6bc
Prothrombin time (s)		13 ± 1.3	24 ± 4b	30 ± 4b
Fibrinogen (g/L)	2-4	3.1 ± 1.0	3.3 ± 1.3	3.6 ± 1.2
Alkaline phosphatase (mU/mL)	50-250	147 ± 53	216 ± 77b	314 ± 96bc
Erythrocytes	4.2-6.1	4.6 ± 0.4	4.3 ± 0.7	3.4 ± 0.6
Leucocytes	4.8-10.8	6.5 ± 1.3	6 ± 2.6	5.5 ± 2.0
Neutrophils (%)	55-75	55 ± 7.4	54 ± 6.2	59 ± 9.3
Lymphocytes (%)	17-45	35 ± 6.0	29 ± 10	27 ± 9.4
Monocytes (%)	2-8	6.0 ± 1.3	8.4 ± 3.0b	10 ± 2.6b
Eosinophils (%)	1-4	3.3 ± 2.0	2.4 ± 1.2	1.7 ± 1.0
Basophils (%)	0.05-0.5	0.5 ± 0.2	0.6 ± 0.3	0.6 ± 0.1

^bP < 0.01 vs control,

^cP < 0.05 vs without minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). MELD: Model for end stage liver disease. Values that are significantly different from controls are indicated by superscripts.