EVALUATION OF SUB-CLINICAL HEPATIC ENCEPHALOPATHY BY PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS

Objective: To evaluate the sub-clinical hepatic encephalopathy by psychometric tests. Patients and Methods: The cross sectional study of six months was conducted at the tertiary care hospital Hyderabad. The inclusion criteria were the patients of ≥12 years of age, either gender, diagnosed to have cirrhosis of liver by history, clinical examination, laboratory findings, ultrasonography and liver biopsy and spare from the medications the impaired the cognitive function. A detailed clinical history, physical examination including neuropsychological tests [NCT and DST] and the baselines and specific relevant investigations were advised and the data was collected on predesigned proforma. The frequency and percentages was calculated while the numerical statistics were used to compute mean ±SD. Results: Thirty patients with histologically proven cirrhosis were recruited and studied for subclinical hepatic encephalopathy during six months study period. The mean age ± SD for whole population was 43.98 ± 7.83 years with male gender predominance (66.6%) while the mean ± SD for DST and NCT was 241.82±5.83 and 152.98±7.75. The common etiologies identified were Hepatitis B (40%), hepatitis C (33.3%) and hepatitis B and C (16.6%) while DST and NCT were shown to be abnormal in 17 (56.6%) and 18 (60%) individuals with chronic liver disease respectively. Conclusion: The sub clinical hepatic encephalopathy on the basis of NCT and DST could better predict a subsequent episode of overt hepatic encephalopathy in chronic liver disease. Keywords: Sub clinical hepatic encephalopathy, psychometric tests and Hepatic encephalopathy.