Functional Assessment in Liver Transplantation

Description

Patients will be asked to perform the following study procedures:

1. Assessment of cognitive function, quality of life, and/or personality using cognitive tests and questionnaires.
2. Measures of frailty and disability selected to capture the multi-dimensional aspects of frailty including functional status and physiologic reserve:

Fried Frailty Score: weakness (test of grip strength), exhaustion (patient interview), slowness (gait speed), low activity (patient interview) Short Physical Performance Battery: repeated chair stands, balance testing with feet together, 13-foot walk
3. Laboratory tests will all be obtained from the medical record: creatinine, total bilirubin, INR, sodium, albumin. All of these tests are necessary for listing for liver transplantation.
4. Blood draw, urine and stool samples will be collected for a sub-group of 1000 patients.
5. Adipose, muscle, liver tissue, and blood will be collected during the liver transplant surgery for a sub-group of 1000 patients.