Spleen area affects the predictive performance for decompensation of the platelet count-based non-invasive tools in MASLD-related cirrhosis: a preliminary observation

Introduction

The platelet (PLT) count is paramount in almost all the available non-invasive tools (NITs) predicting the first hepatic decompensation (FHD) in advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD). However, a non-negligible proportion of Metabolic dysfunction-associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD)-related ACLD individuals presenting clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) do not show splenomegaly and hypersplenism-related thrombocytopenia.

Aim

To evaluate the performance of NITs in predicting the 3-year FHD in CSPH-MASLD-cACLD, stratifying the study population according to the splenomegaly.

Materials and Methods

Between 2018 and 2021, 148 splenic and 27 asplenic (25-splenectomized; 2-agenesis) nonselective-beta-blockers-(NSBB)-naïve MASLD-cACLD patients with endoscopic CSPH were enrolled. Patients subsequently received NSBBs and the response was surrogately evaluated following the available guidelines. Ultrasound AI-supported dedicated tools automatically defined spleen diameter and spleen area (SA), discriminating “Splenomegaly +” (91) and “Splenomegaly -” (57) patients. Patients were semiannually observed and the liver-related events were recorded. Albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) score and PLT count-incorporating NITs (PINs) [FIB-4, ALBI-FIB-4, red-cell-distribution-width/PLT-ratio, Liver-Stiffness-Measurement/PLT-ratio, and ANTICIPATE±NASH] were determined at baseline and during the follow-up.

Results

FHD occurred in 18.68% of “Splenomegaly+”, 19.29% of “Splenomegaly-”, and 22.22% of “Asplenic” individuals. The multivariate competing risk analysis (adjusted for sex, age, BMI, diabetes, MELD, and NSBB-response) revealed the PINs as modest predictors of FHD, highlighting SA as the variable more significantly associated with this outcome [aSHR: 0.870 (95% C.I.: 0.833-1.108), p<0.0001] in “Splenomegaly -”, and ALBI [aSHR:1.273 (95% C.I.:1.199-1.305, p:0.002] as the only significantly predicting factors in the “Asplenic” group. Consistently, contrariwise to “Splenomegaly +”, in “Splenomegaly -” and “Asplenic” individuals, ROC and time-dependent ROC analysis evidenced the poor performance of PINs in predicting HD at baseline, 1,1.5, and 2 years, evidencing only ALBI preserved a good accuracy (baseline AUC 0.651, p:0.04 and baseline AUC:0.625, p:0.03 respectively) (Figure).

Conclusions

The spleen area dramatically affects the predictive performance of the PINs in CSPH-MASLD-cACLD patients.