Background:
Patients with cirrhosis develop malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. These deficiencies have been associated with worse prognosis and increased mortality. More severe liver disease is associated with micronutrient deficiencies including vitamin A, vitamin E, magnesium, and zinc. In the clinical setting, micronutrient testing is not currently standard of care when evaluating patients for liver transplantation. We seek to comprehensively evaluate micronutrient profiles of patients evaluated for liver transplantation to assess the association between micronutrient deficiency patterns and their association with liver-related clinical outcomes among patients evaluated for liver transplantation.
Study design:
We propose a prospective cohort study of 500 patients with cirrhosis evaluated for liver transplantation at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Each patient undergoes one or more collections of blood at time of study to measure micronutrients. Patients will be followed longitudinally and undergo repeat testing as recommended by a registered dietitian for clinical care. The patient's medical record will be reviewed from enrollment until after transplant to monitor pre- and post-transplant outcomes indefinitely.