Abstract

DETERMINATION OF PREVALENCE AND PREDICTORS FOR HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY IN LIVER CIRRHOSIS POPULATION IN SOUTHERN RAJASTHAN: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY (ORIGINAL ARTICLE)

Aftab Alam Sadri Wala*, Bhavya Jain, Dhawal Vyas, Harshil Jagan and Mahendra Singh Rathore

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Abstract

Introduction: Liver cirrhosis a chronic disease associated often leads to complications like hepatic encephalopathy (HE) which can be fatal if not diagnosed early. HE is a reversible and potentially cause multiple organ failure. Limited research on HE prevalence and predictors has been done in southern Rajasthan. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and predictors of HE patients at Geetanjali Medical College and Hospital, Udaipur. Materials and Methods: a prospective crosssectional study was conducted from January 2024 to June 2024 involving 141 patients. Data on demographics and clinical features were collected after obtaining written consent. Various test including haematological, biochemical, serological and USG scan were performed. patients were evaluated using MELD-Na score, CTP score until discharge. Results: The study included 141 patients with mean age of 51.97±12.82 years with males (122, 86.52%) highest in number than females (19, 13.48%) in analysing social history observed that patients are more alcoholic 90 (63.83%) the prevalence of HE was found to be 69.5%.upon binary logistic regression identified age, alcohol and serum ammonia levels as independent predictor with OR of 0.953, 0.240 and 0.802 respectively with p-value of 0.006, 0.002 and 55.7 mcg/dl. Conclusion: HE was a prevalent complication among liver cirrhosis patients (69.5%), with high ammonia levels identified as a potential predictor due to impaired urea metabolism and increased ammonia accumulation in brain.

Keywords: Serum ammonia, Predictors, Liver cirrhosis, Hepatic encephalopathy.