The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of nutritional status on outcome before and after liver transplantation in children with chronic liver disease. In each case, nutritional status is the primary variable being correlated with one of two parameters. The first parameter is for children who are not listed for liver transplantation. We are correlating the age (or duration of disease) at listing for transplantation with nutritional status; and the second is for children undergoing transplantation where the correlation is between nutritional status and length of hospitalization after surgery. Our goal is to enroll 70 patients with chronic liver disease and approximately 30 patients who will undergo liver transplantation. These patients will be examined at regular intervals. We intend to enroll for first visit until June 1999. This date will allow all subjects to be studied for a minimum of 1 year. In the first 5 months, the following goals have been met: 1) Project Coordinator was hired and started work; 2) Database was constructed using Filemaker Pro; 3) Potential candidate subjects have been identified using computer searches of hospital inpatient and outpatient diagnosis codes. 620 patients with chronic liver disease have been identified using these resources. More than 200 subjects with specific diagnoses of either biliary atresia, autoimmune chronic active hepatitis, sclerosing cholangitis, alagille syndrome, tyrosinemia, Wilson's disease have been identified and sent mailings for enrollment; 4) 49 patients have been enrolled to date.
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