Shajee A Siddiqui, Jamal Zafar, Rizwan Aziz Qazi.
Aetiological agents of chronic liver disease (CLD) and its severity.
Ann Pak Inst Med Sci Jan ;1(2):88-91.

Background: Cirrhosis is a chronic disease of the liver culminating into disorganization of hepatic lobular and vascular architecture leading to hepatic dysfunction, porto-systemic shunting and portal hypertension leading to ascites, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatic encephalopathy, etc. Little is known about causes of CLD in Pakistan. Aims: to look into the aetiological agents and severity markers of CLD. Materials and Methods: A total of 100 consecutive patients with established diagnosis of cirrhosis were probed into for aetiology on the basis of history, clinical examination and serological markers for HBV and HCV. Endoscopy was performed in all the cases to identify the source of bleeding, to assess the risk of re-bleeding and to render endoscopic therapy. Results: HCV- hepatitis was found to be the commonest cause of cirrhosis (47%), followed by HBV-hepatitis (32%); 3% of patients had both hepatitis B & C. The grading of patients with CLD, according to modified Child Pugh criteria is presented. Encephalopathy was observed in 38% and coagulopathy in all the patients. Conclusions: HCV and HBV hepatitides remain the commonest causes of CLD in our setup. Therefore, better screening of blood for HBV & HCV, and safe disposal of syringes and safe sexual practices can limit the spread of this deadly disease.

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