Demographics and clinical data of pre-TIPS cirrhotic patients and healthy controls.

Values are expressed as mean ± SD. TIPS = Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt; HC = healthy control; M = male; F = female; SD = standard deviation; NCT = number connecting-A; DST = digit symbol test; HE = hepatic encephalopathy; MHE = minimal hepatic encephalopathy.aThe P value for gender distribution in the two groups was obtained by chi-square test.bThe P value for age and neuropsychological tests difference between the two groups was obtained by two sample t test.#The other HE patient died thus unavailable for follow-up MRI studies.