Predictive role of blood urea nitrogen to serum albumin ratio (BAR) in all-cause mortality in patients with cirrhosis

We aimed to assess the potential association between the blood urea nitrogen to serum albumin ratio (BAR) and all-cause mortality (ACM) in cirrhosis patients. We used X-tile software (V 3.6.1; Yale University, New Haven) to obtain the cutoff value and group the subjects. We applied 1:1 propensity score matching to reduce confounders. The primary endpoint events included ACM at 30, 90, and 365 days. The association between BAR and ACM was investigated using multivariable Cox regression analyses and Kaplan-Meier survival curves. After propensity score matching, we included 746 matched patient pairs based on a cutoff of 9.3. There were no significant differences in 30- and 90-day ACM rates between the 2 groups, while the 365-day ACM rates were 361 (48.4%) and 409 (54.8%; P = .013), respectively. Additionally, the multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that BAR was significantly associated with an increased risk of 365-day ACM, with a hazard ratio of 1.18 and a 95% confidence interval of 1.03 to 1.36; P = .022. The survival analysis showed that the low BAR group had a higher survival probability within 365 days (log-rank P = .046). BAR may be associated with 365-day mortality in hepatic cirrhosis patients in intensive care units.