Prediction of Oesophageal Varices in Cirrhotic Patients by Serum- Ascites Albumin Gradient

Abstract

Background and aim of the work: Portal hypertension (PHT) and the eventual Oesophageal varices is one of the awful complications of liver cirrhosis. Bleeding from OV is a real leading cause of death. This study aims at evaluating serum ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) as a predictor of OV. Patients and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 105 males and 26 females where they were divided into two main groups and sub groups according to the presence and size of OV. All participants were subjected to full history taking, thorough clinical examination, laboratory investigations, liver function tests, complete blood count, kidney function tests, hepatitis markers: HCV-Ab (anti hepatitis c virus antibody) hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs-Ag), abdominal ultrasonography and abdominal diagnostic paracentesis with calculation of SAAG. Results: there is highly significant increased SAAG in cirrhotic patients with OV than those without. Moreover, SAAG increases significantly with the grade of OV. Conclusion: Serum ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) could be used as a non-invasive predictor for the presence of OV in cirrhotic patients with ascites. Moreover, SAAG value increased significantly with the progression of OV.

Role of Serum Ascites Albumin Gradient (SAAG) and Portal Vein Congestion Index as Non-‎Invasive Methods for Prediction of Esophageal Varices in Cirrhotic Patients ‎

“…Our results are near to the results obtained by Marakbi et al [28] they found that at cut-off value of ≥1.3 gm/dl SAAG could predict the presence of esophageal varices in cirrhotic patients, with specificity (100%), sensitivity (90.09 %), positive predictive value (PPV) was 100% and negative predictive value (NPV) was 64.5%.…”