Background: Ghrelin is a gastro-duodenal hormone which plays a major role in the regulation of food intake, energy balance and gastrokinesis. Ghrelin represents a novel biological marker for assessment of the presence as well as the severity of liver cirrhosis. We aimed to measure the level of plasma ghrelin in patients with liver cirrhosis (compensated and decompensated) and to correlate its level with different studied clinical and laboratory parameters.
Subjects and methods: 40 cirrhotic patients were included in a cross-sectional study and divided equally according to the Child-Pugh classification into Group I: patients with compensated liver cirrhosis (Child A), and Group II: patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis (Child B|C). Also, 20 age and sex matched healthy subjects were included as a control group (Group III). All patients were subjected to: full history taking, full clinical examination, routine biochemical studies together with estimation of plasma ghrelin level, assessment of the severity of liver disease according to Child-Pugh classification, also, abdominal ultrasonography was done.
Results: Plasma ghrelin level was low among cirrhotic patients (both compensated and decompensated) in comparison to normal control subjects.
Conclusion: Ghrelin can be used as a serum biomarker for detection and assessment of the severity of liver cirrhosis.
Keywords: Non-invasive serum biomarker; Plasma ghrelin level; anti-fibrotic effect of ghrelin; compensated and decompensated cirrhosis; liver cirrhosis; severity of liver disease.