TO EVALUATE THE REPRODUCIBILITY AND VALIDITY OF NON-INVASIVE PARAMETER PLATELET COUNT SPLENIC DIAMETER RATIO TO PREDICT ESOPHAGEAL VARICES IN INDIAN POPULATION WITH HEPATIC CIRRHOSIS

Abstract

Background: Esophageal varices (EV) are engorged veins in the esophagus. The prevalence of EV in cirrhosis patients is nearly 3-12%, and around 8 to 12% of subjects show the advancement of EV from small to large veins. Aim: To evaluate the reproducibility or validity of non - invasive parameter platelet count/splenic diameter ratio to predict esophageal varices in Indian population with hepatic cirrhosis Materials and methods: All the cirrhosis patients irrespective of etiology, attended to the outpatient ward in the department of General Medicine at R.L. JALAPPA hospital and research centre Tamaka, Kolar. Who fulfils the inclusion criteria were considered as the study population? The current study was a cross-sectional study. Results: A total of 52 subjects were included in the final analysis. The mean age was 50.1 ± 13.97in the study population, ranged between was 25 years to 78 years in the study population. Among the study population,44(84.62%) participants were male and remaining 8(15.38%) participants were female. Relationship between non-invasive parameters like Age, Serum Bilirubin, Serum albumin, Haemoglobin, Platelet count, Spleen Bipolar diameter, PC/SD ratio to the presence of varices was studied and were not statistical significance. The mean spleen bipolar diameter was 119.1 ± 31.09 in the study population. The mean Platelet to spleen diameter Ratio was 1201.3 ± 941.54. No significant values were obtained on the comparison of varices with Platelet to spleen diameter ratio. Predictive validity of Platelet to spleen diameter ratio in predicting varices had a sensitivity of 47.83%; specificity was 33.33%. Conclusion: This study indicates that it may be possible to predict the presence of large esophageal varices using simple and non-invasive tools like a clinical examination for the presence of a palpable spleen and platelet count with a fairly high degree of accuracy.