The combination of Child–Pugh score and quantitative CT-based spleen volume could predict the risk of hepatic encephalopathy after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation

Hepatic encephalopathy (HE) is a common complication in patients undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS). The objective of this study was to assess the prognostic factors and make risk stratification of post-TIPS HE. This was a retrospective cohort study consisting of cirrhotic patients who had undergone TIPS creation at our center from November 2015 to August 2020. The baseline characteristics including spleen volume (SVol) and other markers were collected. The univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to identify independent predictors of post-TIPS overt HE (OHE). Higher Child–Pugh (CP) score (HR 1.334, 95% CI 1.090–1.632, P = 0.005) and smaller SVol (HR 0.999, 95% CI 0.997–1.000, P = 0.004) were identified as the independent risk factors for post-TIPS OHE. And a time-dependent ROC analysis was used to determine the cutoff values of CP score and SVol, which were respectively 6.5 and 773 cm3. Subsequently, the CP-SVol grading system was developed to divide patients into three risk grades according to the above two cutoff values. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that the cumulative rates of patients free of OHE in Grade 1, 2 and 3 were respectively 96.4% ± 3.5%, 82.1 ± 4.7%, and 59.3% ± 6.4%, which were in descending order (Log rank P < 0.001). SVol might be a novel marker to predict the prognosis of post-TIPS OHE, and the proposed CP-SVol grading system composed of CP score and SVol achieved a superior predictive performance.