NON INVASIVE MARKER (AST/ALT RATIO) TO PREDICT FIBROSIS IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE

Objective: To evaluate the AST/ALT ratio to predict fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease at tertiary care hospital Patients and Methods: Total fifty patients, of 12 to 50 years either gender had chronic liver disease by positive HCV RNA PCR and/or HBs Ag, and had liver biopsy done for evaluation purposes were enrolled and entered in this six months cross sectional study after informed consent. The brief history was taken and relevant clinical examination was performed while the laboratory investigations includes liver function test, serum albumin, ultrasound abdomen, prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), and partial thromboplastin time (APTT). The AST / ALT ratio was calculated and ≥1 was considered as significant fibrosis while the data was saved on pre-designed proforma. The SPSS 16 was used to analyze the data and to manipulate the mean ±SD, frequencies and percentages. Results: During six months study period total fifty patients with chronic liver disease were evaluate for cirrhosis and fibrosis by serum indirect markers. The mean ± for age (years) & duration of chronic liver disease (years) for whole population was 42.63±6.55 & 6.62±2.74 respectively. The AST/ALT ratio (≥1) was detected in 32 (64%) patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Conclusion: AST/ALT ratio is non-invasive with no risk of complications, eliminates sampling and observer variability, may allow dynamic calibration of fibrosis and can be performed repeatedly to evaluate the severity of liver disease. Keywords: AST/ALT ratio, chronic liver disease and Non invasive marker