Medically Tailored Meals for Patients With Cirrhosis and Hepatic Encephalopathy: The BRAINFOOD Proof-of-concept Trial.

Background And Aims: Guidelines recommend that patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) receive a high-protein diet (roughly 1 g/kg actual body weight). Concommitant sodium restriction, low health literacy, and food insecurity limit patients' ability to meet this goal. We aimed to determine the feasibility of home-delivered high-protein medically tailored meals (MTMs) for patients with a recent episode of overt HE.

CAREGIVER Randomized Trial of Two Mindfulness Methods to Improve the Burden and Distress of Caring for Persons with Cirrhosis.

Background: Patient caregivers experience burden and distress that negatively impacts health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Mindfulness may alleviate caregiver burden but randomized trials of mindfulness activities on caregiver burden and distress are lacking.

Methods: Caregivers for patients with advanced liver disease were recruited from the Universities of Michigan and Pennsylvania (12/2019-12/2021) and followed for 8 weeks.

Falls are an underappreciated driver of morbidity and mortality in cirrhosis.

Content available: Author Interview and Audio Recording.

Predicting which patients with cirrhosis will develop overt hepatic encephalopathy: Beyond psychometric testing.

It remains challenging to identify covert hepatic encephalopathy and predict progression to overt hepatic encephalopathy. Psychometric testing is a widely used diagnostic modality, but it is often inaccurate and difficult to implement in diverse populations, making it a less than ideal assessment. Alternatively, by using easily accessible data from the electronic health record, simple clinical assessment tools, and patient-reported outcomes, we may be better able to predict hepatic encephalopathy across multiple populations.

The emotional burden of caregiving for patients with cirrhosis.

Caregivers for patients with cirrhosis face immense physical and psychological strain that negatively impact quality of life and ability to care for oneself. The aim is to explore the caregiver experience for patients with cirrhosis, identify prominent stressors, and understand the multidimensional contributors to caregiver burden, to help tailor effective interventions. The caregivers of 25 patients with decompensated cirrhosis underwent semistructured in-person interviews and completed written exercises targeting emotional disclosure or resilience training that were analyzed for dominant emotions and themes.

The incidence and outcome of postoperative hepatic encephalopathy in patients with cirrhosis.

Background: Cirrhosis is associated with increased perioperative risks related to hepatic decompensation. However, data are lacking regarding the incidence and outcomes of postoperative hepatic encephalopathy (HE).

Objective: To determine the incidence of HE postoperatively, factors associated with its development, and its association with in-hospital mortality.

How Do Patients With Cirrhosis and Their Caregivers Learn About and Manage Their Health? A Review and Qualitative Study.

The complexity of cirrhosis requires patients and their caregivers to be well educated to improve outcomes. Data are lacking regarding how to best educate patients and their caregivers in the setting of cirrhosis. Our aim is to understand (both through existing literature and by asking patients and their caregivers) how patients learn about their disease, barriers in their education and disease management, and self-management strategies.

Prevalence and Effect of Intestinal Infections Detected by a PCR-Based Stool Test in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Background: The advent of PCR-based stool testing has identified a greatly increased number of infectious agents in IBD, but their clinical significance is unknown.

Aims: To determine the infectious agent prevalence and the clinical significance of these infectious agents in IBD patients.

Methods: This cross-sectional study compared the prevalence of GI infections among IBD patients with active and quiescent disease versus healthy controls.