Study of the structure of intestinal microflora in patients with mild hepatic encephalopathy based on probability topic model

Abstract:

[Objective] We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) probabilistic topic model to analyze the effect of rifaximin combined with probiotics orally taken by patients with mild hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) on structural heterogeneity and clinical efficacy of intestinal microflora. [Methods] We adopted Monte Carlo algorithm for folding Gibbs sampling of LDA probabilistic topic model included in R language to analyze the OTUs (operational taxonomic unit) data set with temporal heterogeneity of MHE patients' intestinal microflora structure. [Results] Using LDA model we divided MHE patients' 42 fecal samples into 3 topics and determined OTUs genus with largest impact on MHE patients' heterostructure of intestinal microflora. They were Escherichia, Bacteroides and Streptococcus. Compared conditions before and after treatment, the variation patterns of 3 species in the group were the genus of the same type. Their variation times and frequency were higher than those of different types of bacteria. Both MHE patients in Rifaximin combined with probiotics treatment group and rifaximin alone treatment group changed the intestinal microflora structure after treatment (P<0.05). In addition, according to the clinical curative effect index:comparing serum IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, TBIL, ALT, CRP, NCT-A, γ-GGT and blood ammonia level after treatment, the observation group was obviously superior to the control group with significant differences and the difference has statistical significance (P<0.05). Total effective rate for treatment group was 88.8%, with 22.2% total incidence of adverse reactions; Total effective rate for control group was 75%, with 38.5% total incidence of adverse reactions (P<0.05). [Conclusion] LDA model can effectively quantifying the heterogeneity of flora structure and identify the OTUs with the greatest impact on heterogeneity. Rifaximin combined with probiotics treatment can significantly improve the level of blood ammonia and serum inflammatory factors in patients with MHE. It can also change intestinal microflora structure in MHE patients, which is mainly represented by the reduction of pathogens and the increase of probiotics. As a result, it has good clinical application value.