CRP and hepatocellular carcinoma: Univariate analysis revealed that the presence of H. pylori infection was associated independently with the development of SBP, PVT, and HCC (all P < 0.05) while multivariate regression analysis model reported that the presence of H. pylori infection was associated independently with the development of only PVT and HCC, after adjustment for age, BMI, inflammatory markers (CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α), vascular mediators (VEGF and NO), Child-Pugh score and MELD score as shown in Table 5.