Citations

Acute‐on‐chronic liver failure (ACLF) characterized with ≥2 extrahepatic organ failures in cirrhosis carries a high mortality. Outcomes of patients listed for liver transplantation (LT) after ACLF and after LT are largely unknown. The North American Consortium for the Study of End‐Stage Liver Disease prospectively enrolled 2793 nonelectively hospitalized patients with cirrhosis; 768 were listed for LT. Within 3 months, 265 (35%) received a LT, 395 remained alive without LT, and 108 died/delisted. Compared with nonlisted patients, those listed were younger and more often had ACLF, acute kidney injury, and a higher admission Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. ACLF was most common in patients who died/delisted, followed by those alive with and without LT respectively, (30%, 22%, and 7%, respectively; P < 0.001). At LT, median MELD was 27.9% and 70% were inpatients; median time from hospitalization to LT was 26 days. Post‐LT survival at 6 months was unchanged between those with and without ACLF (93% each at 6 months). There was no difference in 3‐ and 6‐month mean post‐LT creatinine in those with and without ACLF, despite those with ACLF having a higher mean pre‐LT creatinine and a higher rate of perioperative dialysis (61%). In conclusion, patients with and without ACLF had similar survival after transplant with excellent renal recovery in both groups.

OBJECTIVES: Antibiotic prophylaxis is recommended for prevention of the first episode of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP; primary prophylaxis 1°) and subsequent episodes (secondary prophylaxis 2°). We aimed to compare outcomes in cirrhotic inpatients on 1° vs 2° SBP prophylaxis. METHODS: Data from North American Consortium for the Study of End-Stage Liver Disease were evaluated for cirrhosis details, reasons for admission/medications, inpatient course recorded, and outcomes over 90 days. Outcomes (intensive care units, acute kidney injury, inpatient/90-day mortality) were compared between the 2 groups after propensity-matching on admission model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score and serum albumin. RESULTS: Among the 2,731 patients enrolled, 305 were on 1° and 187 on 2° SBP prophylaxis. After propensity-matching, 154 patients remained in each group. Patients on 1° prophylaxis were more likely to have admission systemic inflammatory response syndrome ( P = 0.02), with higher intensive care unit admissions (31% vs 21%; P = 0.05) and inpatient mortality (19% vs 9%; P = 0.01) than the 2° prophylaxis group. Patients on 2° prophylaxis had higher total (22% vs 10%; P = 0004), readmission (16% vs 9%; P = 0.03), and nosocomial (6% vs 0.5%; P = 0.01) SBP rates with predominant Gram-negative organisms compared to 1° prophylaxis patients. At 90 days, 1° prophylaxis patients had a higher mortality (35% vs 22%; P = 0.02) and acute kidney injury incidence (48% vs 30%; P = 0.04) compared to 2° prophylaxis patients. DISCUSSION: In this inpatient cirrhosis study, despite prophylaxis, a high proportion of patients developed SBP, which was associated with mortality. Cirrhotic inpatients on 1° prophylaxis had worse outcomes than those on 2° prophylaxis when propensity-matched for the MELD score and serum albumin during the index admission and 90-day follow-up.

Abstract: Historically, hepatitis C virus infection has posed a barrier to cancer therapies and enrollment in clinical trials for oncology patients. Oral direct acting antivirals now allow most patients, previously considered difficult to treat to be effectively (>95% sustained virologic response) and safely cured.

513 Background: The PCG registry is a multicenter registry for patients receiving proton therapy for various malignancies. The current abstract reviews the outcomes for patients receiving postoperative proton therapy for resected pancreatic cancer. Methods: From March, 2013 to August,2016 18 patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma received postoperative proton therapy. The current study reviews the pretreatment characteristics and outcomes of these patients. Results: Median age -70 years (range 52 to 79); Males 12, Females 6; pT Stage -T2–4, T3–13, T4–1; N Stage -N1–12, N0–6; Margin Status -Close-8, Positive-4, Negative-6; Surgical approach -open-16, laparoscopic 2; Operations performed: standard pancreaticoduodenectomy-11, pylorus sparing pancreaticoduodenectomy-4, total pancreatectomy-1; Pancreaticoduodenectomy with portal vein reconstruction –1; Pancreaticoduodenectomy with irreversible electroporation. Median lymph nodes taken-16.50 (range 3 to 72); Median lymph nodes positive-1.5 (range 0 to 7); PNI positive-9, PNI negative-2, PNI unknown-4; LVI positive-7, LVI negative-6, LVI unknown-5; Median tumor size –3.1cm (range 2.2 to 6.2); Median dose delivered –50.51Gy(RBE) (range 27.88 to 54.00); Median treatment duration –38 calendar days (range 25 to 48); One patient died during treatment. One additional patient demonstrated grade 3 toxicity (anorexia, nausea, diarrhea). Only one patient’s treatment was protracted by more than 5 days. Median available follow up is 1.1 years (range 0.07 to 3.4 years); 2 year survival 37%. Conclusions: Postoperative proton therapy after pancreatectomy was well tolerated without treatment interruption or severe toxicity.

Children with pediatric-onset multiple sclerosis and pediatric controls were enrolled across 16 pediatric multiple sclerosis centers in the United States and completed questionnaires that addressed time of first unaided walking and acquisition of 2-word phrases. A total of 467 (308 female) cases and 428 (209 female) controls were enrolled. Pediatric multiple sclerosis (n = 467) were not delayed in walking or using 2-word phrases compared to healthy controls (n = 428) (2.2% vs 5.7%, respectively). Children with disease onset before age 11 versus onset at 11 years or after were more likely to need an individualized education plan ( P = .002), reading assistance ( P = .0003), and math assistance ( P = .001). Children with multiple sclerosis onset prior to age 18 are not delayed in meeting the 2 major early developmental milestones but do have a significantly increased use of special services or learning assistance at school. Further research will need to address whether other measures of development (eg, rate of language acquisition or fine motor skills) differ between pediatric multiple sclerosis and controls.

e16555 Background: The ProtecT trial underscores the importance of treatment in men with prostate cancer and life expectancies > 10 years and the validity of radiation therapy (RT). RT can be given with photons or protons (PT). To address the controversy of which is better, clinical outcomes of photon-based intensity modulated RT (IMRT) and PT cohorts from 2 institutions were directly compared. Methods: Under respective IRB approvals, data from 2 cohorts were analyzed. The first was 301 men treated with ultrasound image guided IMRT from 2000-05 to 75.6 Gy in 42 fractions. The second was 1214 men treated with fiducial image guided PT from 2006-10 to 78 CGE in 39 fractions. Median age and followup were 74 y and 7.2 y for IMRT and 66 y and 5.6 y for PT. Hormone therapy (ADT) was used with IMRT and PT, respectively, in 3% and 7% of low-risk patients, 25% and 9.9% of intermediate-risk, and 91% and 57.8% of high-risk. Comparative endpoints were age-stratified 5-year (5Y) survival (OS), ≥ grade 3 gastrointestinal (GI) and urologic (GU) toxicity, and 5Y freedom from biochemical progression (FFBP). Results: There was a lower prevalence of GI (1.3% vs 0.1%, p = 0.0065) and GU (4.3% vs 0.1%, p < 0.0001) toxicity at last follow-up in the PT group. In the IMRT and PT cohorts, OS rates were 90.8% and 88.7% in men ≥75 (p = 0.4083). In men < 75, OS rates were 91.6% and 97.5% in the IMRT and PT low-risk patients (p = 0.003), 92.1% and 95.5% in the IMRT and PT intermediate-risk (p = 0.0535), and 92.0% and 90.0% (p = 0.4975) in the IMRT and PT high-risk. In the IMRT and PT cohorts, respectively, FFBP rates were 92.2% and 98.9% for low-risk patients (p < 0.0001), 87.3% and 94.5% for intermediate-risk patients(p = 0.0226), and 80.3% and 74.4% for high-risk patients (p = 0.5154). Conclusions: In this retrospective comparison of outcomes in cohorts of men treated with IMRT and PT for prostate cancer, FFBP rates were better with PT for men with low- and intermediate-risk disease and similar in men with high-risk disease despite longer and more frequent use of ADT in the IMRT cohort. This study underscores the difficulty of comparing retrospective series, with differences noted in age, RT dose, and ADT use between cohorts. However, the magnitude of improvement with PT is intriguing and warrants prospective testing.

Abstract Identifying patients at high risk for acute kidney injury (AKI) during hospitalization among patients admitted with severe alcoholic hepatitis (AH) is an unmet clinical need. We performed a multicentric prospective cohort study using data from 4 different cohorts on well‐characterized patients hospitalized with severe AH. Data collected on 773 AH patients from 4 cohorts across the globe were randomly split into test (n = 390) and validation (n = 383) cohorts. We found that 32% of the patients developed inpatient AKI in the test cohort. Approximately 60% of patients met criteria for systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) at admission. Hepatic encephalopathy, SIRS, and Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease score at admission predicted inpatient AKI with odds ratios of 3.86, 2.24, and 1.14, respectively. The AKI risk score developed using these predictors stratified risk of inpatient AKI to low (score <3), moderate (3‐4), and high (>4). These findings were replicated in the validation cohort. In the whole study cohort, patients with AKI had a lower 90‐day survival (53% versus 77%; P < 0.001). Those with AKI risk score of >4 had significantly lower 90‐day survival as compared with those with risk scores between 3 and 4 and <3 (47% versus 68% versus 88%; P < 0.001). In conclusion, AKI occurs frequently in AH patients and negatively impacts short‐term mortality. The AKI risk score is useful in identifying patients at high risk for inpatient AKI and may be useful for developing new therapeutic strategies to prevent AKI in patients with AH.

There is increasing scrutiny from healthcare organizations towards the utility and associated costs of imaging. MRI has traditionally been used as a high‐end modality, and although shown extremely important for many types of clinical scenarios, it has been suggested as too expensive by some. This editorial will try and explain how value should be addressed and gives some insights and practical examples of how value of MRI can be increased. It requires a global effort to increase accessibility, value for money, and impact on patient management. We hope this editorial sheds some light and gives some indications of where the field may wish to address some of its research to proactively demonstrate the value of MRI.Level of Evidence: 5Technical Efficacy: Stage 5J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;49:e14–e25.