The Impact of Liver Cell Injury on Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Liver Disease.

Patients with chronic liver disease often suffer from unspecific symptoms and report severe impairment in the quality of life. The underlying mechanisms are multifactorial and include disease-specific but also liver related causes. The current analysis evaluated the association of hepatocellular apoptosis in non-viral chronic liver disease and health-related quality of life (HRQL). Furthermore we examined factors, which influence patient's physical and mental well-being.A total of 150 patients with non-infectious chronic liver disease were included between January 2014 and June 2015. The German version of the Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ-D), a liver disease specific instrument to assess HRQL, was employed. Hepatocellular apoptosis was determined by measuring Cytokeratin 18 (CK18, M30 Apoptosense ELISA).Female gender (5.24 vs. 5.54, p = 0.04), diabetes mellitus type II (4.75 vs. 5.46, p