Fig 1.
Patient selection procedure and study procedure.
LC, liver cirrhosis; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; PPI, proton pump inhibitor.
Table 1.
The patients’ backgrounds and non-parametric tests clustered by SIBO.
Table 2.
Non-parametric tests clustered by H-SIBO.
Table 3.
Univariate and multivariate logistic analyses clustered by H-SIBO.
Table 4.
Non-parametric tests clustered by M-SIBO / IMO.
Fig 2.
Relationship between the child-pugh scores of covert HE and the type of small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO).
Overall, SIBO was not significantly associated with the Child-Pugh grade (grade A of 67.7%, grade B of 25.8%, and grade C of 6.5% in SIBO positive and grade A of 84.2%, grade B of 11.8%, and grade C of 3.9% in SIBO negative, P = 0.153; A) or covert hepatic encephalopathy (HE) (35.5% vs. 25.0%, P = 0.273; B). By contrast, hydrogen-producing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (H-SIBO) was significantly associated with both Child-Pugh grade (grade A of 50.0%, grade B of 37.5%, and grade C of 12.5% in H-SIBO positive and grade A of 84.6%, grade B of 12.1%, and grade C of 3.3% in H-SIBO negative, P = 0.007; C) and covert HE (50.0% vs. 24.2%, P = 0.034; D). In addition, methane-producing small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (M-SIBO) was also not significantly associated with the Child-Pugh grade (grade A of 78.9%, grade B of 21.1%, and grade C of 0.0% in M-SIBO positive and grade A of 79.5%, grade B of 14.8%, and grade C of 5.7% in M-SIBO negative, P = 0.480; E), or covert HE (31.6% vs. 27.3%, P = 0.705; F).
Table 5.
Case series treated by rifaximin in patients with both SIBO and covert HE.