Altered Modular Organization of Functional Connectivity Networks in Cirrhotic Patients without Overt Hepatic Encephalopathy

Table 1

Demographical and clinical data of the healthy controls and cirrhotic patients.

Variable	Healthy controls (𝑛=38)	non-HE patients (𝑛=31)	MHE patients (𝑛=24)	P value
Age (Y)	48.6 ± 12.7	46.6 ± 10.2	52.3 ± 9.2	0.187^∣
Gender (M/F)	25/13	24/7	19/5	0.411^~
NCT-A (s)^*#	45.1 ± 12.7	42.7 ± 9.6	69.5 ± 17.4	<0.00 𝟏^∣
DST (score)^*#$	49.8 ± 9.8	42.5 ± 9.6	25.6 ± 7.7	<0.00 𝟏^∣
Posthepatitic cirrhosis (n)	—	21	17	—
Biliary cirrhosis (n)	—	3	3	—
Schistosomal cirrhosis (n)	—	0	1	—
Alcoholic cirrhosis (n)	—	1	1	—
Budd-Chiari syndrome (n)	—	1	0	—
Unknown aetiology (n)	—	5	2	—
Child-Pugh scores (score)	—	6.4 ± 1.5	6.8 ± 1.7	0.40^!
Child-Pugh scale (A/B/C)	—	20/10/1	11/12/1	—
Ammonia level (umol/L)^@	—	52.8 ± 34.6 (𝑛=26)	61.2 ± 28.8 (𝑛=19)	0.398^!

Values are mean ± SD or number of patients; MHE: minimal hepatic encephalopathy; NCT-A: number connection test type A; DST: digit symbol test.
^@Ammonia is obtained in 19 MHE patients and 26 non-HE patients.
^!stands for the results of two-sample t-test.
^∣stands for the result of the one-way ANOVA.
^~stands for the result of the Chi-Square test.
*stands for significant difference between MHE and non-HE patients (post hoc P <0.05, Bonferroni-corrected).
^#stands for significant difference between MHE patients and controls (post hoc P <0.05, Bonferroni-corrected).
^$stands for significant differences between non-HE patients and controls (post hoc P <0.05, Bonferroni-corrected).