Objectives: The aim of the work was to assess the level of copeptin as a surrogate marker predicting the severity of liver diseases and its major complications.
Patients and methods: This was a cross-sectional study that included 40 patients and 10 controls and was performed in Tanta University Hospital between June 2016 and November 2016. The studied cases were divided into five groups: group I (10 patients): compensated cirrhosis; group II (10 patients): cirrhosis with gastrointestinal hemorrhage due to portal hypertension; group III (10 patients): cirrhosis with hepatorenal syndrome; group IV (10 patients): cirrhosis with liver cell failure; and group V (10 controls): normal healthy individuals.
Results: Regarding serum copeptin in the studied groups, copeptin showed a significant decrease in group I vs group II' group I vs group III, and group I vs group IV; and there was a significant increase in group II vs group III' group II vs group IV' group II vs control' group III vs control, and group IV vs control. No significance was detected between group I vs control and group III vs group IV.
Conclusions: Copeptin is a novel marker for the determination of prognosis of liver cirrhosis. There is significant association between serum level of copeptin and complications of liver cirrhosis.
Keywords: cirrhosis; hepatorenal syndrome; liver failure; prognosis; varices.