Muhammad Akbar Malik, Waqar Hussain, Muhammad Aslam, Sajid Maqbool.
Clinical spectrum of Chronic Liver Disease in Pakistani hospitalized children.
Pak Paed J Jan ;24(1):9-12.

Objective: To evaluate the clinical spectrum of chronic liver disease in Pakistani hospitalized children. Setting: Tertiary level referral teaching hospitals. Methods: All children with chronic liver disease who presented from Jan. 1998 to may 1999 were subjected to clinical and laboratory evaluations. A total of 30 patients aged 6 months to 12 years were included in this study. All of these patients underwent viral serology. liver function tests and other routine laboratory investigations. Special tests including liver biopsy were done when these were clinically indicated. The most common presenting features were jaundice (73%), fever (50%), abdominal distension (30%) and bleeding manifestations (13%). On examination hepatornegaly (66%), splenomegaly (63%), hepatosplenomegaly (43%), pallor (56%) and ascities (53%) were the commonest findings. The most common abnormal laboratory findings were hypoalbuminaemia (83%), raised transaminases (70%) and prolonged prothrombin time (66%). Thirteen (47%) patients had positive serology for viral hepatitis, viral hepatitis B being one of the commonest cause. Liver biopsy was done in 18 patients. 10 (55%) stowed chronic active hepatitis and 7 (30%) had cirrhosis of liver. whereas only one patient had biliary atresia. It is recommended that preventive measures such as vaccination against viral hepatitis B, use of disposable syringes and screening of blood and blood products before transfusions should be strictly adopted.

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