Patients with alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) possess a greater risk of death, but limited studies demonstrate the significance of histological severity or estimated relative risks compared with a general population. A study investigated mortality in a nationwide cohort of biopsy-proven ALD.

It was a population-based cohort study in Sweden that included 3453 individuals with ALD and a liver biopsy who were compared with 16535 matched general population individuals, rendering the following results- 

• 58 years was found to be the median age of the population at diagnosis with 65% being men and 52% having cirrhosis at baseline. 
• ALD patients showed 40.9% while reference individuals showed 5.8% as the five-year cumulative mortality. 
• A significantly increased risk for overall mortality was observed.
• A high risk of liver-related death was observed. 
• Patients with ALD without cirrhosis also showed a significantly increased Mortality, which was found to be highest in the first year after baseline but continued after ≥10 years of follow-up.

Thus it was found that Individuals with biopsy-proven ALD are at ~5times increased risk of death than the general population. Furthermore, individuals with ALD without cirrhosis are also at increased risk of death, demanding more attentiveness in the surveillance of these individuals.

Source- Hagström H, Thiele M, Roelstraete B, et al. Mortality in biopsy-proven alcohol-related liver disease: a population-based nationwide cohort study of 3453 patients, Gut, 2021;70:170-179.