Critical Flicker Frequency for Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Patients with Cirrhosis

Abstract

© 2011, INASL 16 Critical Flicker Frequency for Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Patients with Cirrhosis C Sateesh Chandra, P Murali Krishna, LRS Girinadh Department of Gastroenterology, Andhra Medical College, Visakhapatnam Background: Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is characterized by slight cognitive abnormalities and impairs quality of life and predicts overt hepatic encephalopathy (HE) in cirrhotic patients. MHE patients over a period of follow-up develop HE more than those who don’t have MHE. Diagnosis of MHE requires cumbersome tests. This study aimed to evaluate the use of critical flicker frequency (CFF) for the diagnosis of MHE in cirrhotic patients. Methods: Thirty-one cirrhotic patients of different etiologies and stages were included in the study. All the patients were evaluated by psychometry (number connection test or line drawing test) and CFF ( 1.4, (fibrosis score of F > 2, as defined by Ishak staging score). It was found that there was a statistically significant (p < 0.001) reduction in PON-1 level and HDL concentration in CLD group as compared to that of control. As liver plays an important role in the synthesis of PON1 as well as lipoproteins, PON/HDL ratio could play an alternate effective non-invasive method to assess liver fibrosis. Conclusion: Our study reveals that PON-1/HDL ratio could be useful as a non-invasive test for diagnosing the extent of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease and this may further be evaluated using larger patient population. Conflict of Interest: None Spectrum of Gastric Varices and Efficacy of N-Butyl-2-Cyanoacrylate (Glue) Injection in Extrahepatic Portal Vein Obstruction (EHPVO) Versus Cirrhosis—A Comparative Study AK Rawat, BC Sharma, S Sachdeva, AS Puri Department of Gastroenterology, GB Pant Hospital, New Delhi Background: Bleeding from gastric varices tends to be severe and associated with high mortality. There is paucity of data on comparison of spectrum of gastric varices and response to endoscopic glue injection in patients with EHPVO versus cirrhosis. Aims: To compare the prevalence and spectrum of gastric varices in EHPVO versus cirrhosis and the results of endoscopic glue injection. Patients and Methods: From October 2009 to December 2010, retrospective analysis of 86 patients with EHPVO or cirrhosis having bleeding from gastric varices was performed and parameters like type of gastric varices, control of acute bleeding, rebleeding and obturation of gastric varices were analyzed. 03_JCEH-Abstract.indd 16 3/18/2011 11:13:04 AM