Critical flicker frequency improves after alcohol detoxification and is associated with liver stiffness

BACKGROUND Critical flicker frequency (CFF) is a quantitative tool for assessing hepatic encephalopathy (HE), particularly minimal HE, which is associated with poor prognosis in liver cirrhosis. Alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) is a leading global cause of cirrhosis; however, the effects of alcohol on CFF and its relationship with liver stiffness (LS) remain underexplored. AIM To study the impact of alcohol withdrawal on CFF and its correlation with LS in ALD patients. METHODS A total of 108 patients were included: 93 heavy drinkers hospitalized for detoxification, 15 with non-ALD etiologies, and 20 healthy controls. CFF was measured using the Hepatonorm analyzer, and LS via transient elastography (FibroScan). Baseline and post-detoxification assessments were conducted in 57 ALD patients. RESULTS The cohort had a mean age of 53.7 ± 13.8 years, with 74% male participants. CFF measurements were reliable, with 97.2% of patients showing an interquartile range < 20%. ALD patients exhibited significantly lower CFF compared to controls. Receiver operating characteristic analysis for overt HE (n = 12) yielded an area under the curve of 0.66 (95% confidence interval: 0.49-0.84, P = 0.0142), with an optimal cutoff of 36.5 Hz. CFF significantly improved post-detoxification. Patients with LS > 17 kPa had lower CFF, while those with intermediate LS showed no significant difference. CONCLUSION CFF is influenced by HE severity and acute alcohol exposure, showing improvement after detoxification. Its weak correlation with fibrosis stage suggests that CFF serves as a sensitive neurocognitive marker in ALD.