Hepatic Encephalopathy is Associated With Slow Speech on Objective Assessment

• Published in: The American journal of gastroenterology Vol. 116; no. 9; pp. 1950 - 1953
• Main Authors: Bloom, Patricia P, Robin, Jessica, Xu, Mengdan, Arvind, Ashwini, Daidone, Michael, Gupta, Anoopum S, Chung, Raymond T
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.09.2021
• Subjects: Aged; Female; Hepatic Encephalopathy - complications; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Speech; Speech Disorders - etiology
• ISSN: 0002-9270; 1572-0241
• DOI: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000001351

There are no available low-burden, point-of-care tests to diagnose, grade, and predict hepatic encephalopathy (HE). We evaluated speech as a biomarker of HE in 76 English-speaking adults with cirrhosis. Three speech features significantly correlated with the following neuropsychiatric scores: speech rate, word duration, and use of particles. Patients with low neuropsychiatric scores had slower speech (22 words/min, P = 0.01), longer word duration (0.09 seconds/word, P = 0.01), and used fewer particles (0.85% fewer, P = 0.01). Patients with a history of overt HE had slower speech (23 words/min, P = 0.005) and longer word duration (0.09 seconds/word, P = 0.005). HE is associated with slower speech.