Liver involvement in the Hispanic population of North America with cystic fibrosis.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the present article was to determine the prevalence of liver involvement in Hispanic patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and identify associations with age and severity of liver involvement.

METHODS

We used 1994-2005 Epidemiologic Study of CF data to compare abnormal liver findings between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white patients with CF.

RESULTS

Of 30,727 patients with CF, 5015 had liver involvement. Of 1957 Hispanic patients, 20.8% had liver involvement compared with 16.0% of 28,770 non-Hispanic white patients (odds ratio [OR] 1.38, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.23-1.54). This higher prevalence of liver involvement persisted after adjusting for demographics and meconium ileus and was especially high in the first year of life (adjusted OR 3.14, 95% CI 2.27-4.35). Ten percent of infants with only elevated liver enzymes progressed to more severe liver disease.

CONCLUSIONS

The Hispanic population with CF has more liver involvement (both elevated liver enzymes and clinical liver disease) than the non-Hispanic white population with CF, especially during the first year of life.