Abdul Rehman, Mustansar Mahmood Waraich, Irfan Ullah.
Baseline liver assessment and tuberculosis in children aged 6 - 59 months of age.
Pak Paed J Jan ;33(3):162-7.

Objective: To know the differences in the assessment (clinical and laboratory) of liver dysfunction in children aged 6 month-59 months presenting with and without tuberculosis. Methods: Cross sectional comparative study conducted at a Pediatric Clinic at Liaquatpur (Pakistan) in children presenting with a suspicion of tuberculosis. Results: 367 children qualified for the study, 72 with “probable tuberculosis” (group A) and 295 with “no tuberculosis” (group B).The children from group A showed hepatomegaly in 81.94% cases and 22.03 % in Group B (P<0.0001). The children from group A showed raised serum ALT in 2.78% cases and 2.71% in cases from Group B (P value 1). There were two cases with raised ALT from group A having hepatomegaly. In group B, there were 6/8 children (75%) with raised ALT having hepatomegaly while other 2 cases (25%) with raised ALT without hepatomegaly (clinically cases of chronic liver disease). In group A, among 2 cases with raised serum ALT, one child showed signs of acute hepatitis along with raised serum alkaline phosphatase and serum bilirubin while other cases showed only raised ALT (85) with no symptoms. Among 8 cases of raised ALT from Group B, two were turned to be cases of chronic liver disease while one case showed signs of acute hepatitis; rest 5 cases showed isolated raised serum ALT. Conclusion: Hepatomegaly was a part of disease process in tuberculosis and was not found to be associated with increased risk of liver dysfunction.

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