A study of serum ferritin as a prognostic marker in patients with decompensated liver disease

Introduction: Decompensated liver disease caused by various modifiable and non-modifiable factors leads to the progression of cirrhosis, jaundice, bleeding varies and other complications which leads to high complications and mortality. This study was carried out to predict whether serum ferritin a marker of body iron stores and inflammation is a valid prognostic marker in advanced liver disease. Aim of the study: To study whether serum ferritin levels as an independent prognostic marker to predict the mortality of patients with decompensated liver disease. Materials and methods: It was a prospective and analytical study of 100 patients admitted to our hospital with DCLD and its complications. The study period was from August 2017 to July 2018. After informed consent patients were evaluated with laboratory investigations, clinical examination. Results: It was found that among enrolled 100 patients after getting informed consent, the majority were male patients but sex wise both female and male patients that P- the value of the comparison non-significant. This indicated that there was a low correlation between, LFT values with SF values. This also proved that high SF values were having a low association with LFT values which needs more investigation. Conclusion: Serum ferritin is one of the surrogate markers to predict prognosis in the patients of DCLD. Compared with a well established prognostic model like MELD score, to assess the mortality with SF level is statistically valid one. So, in future SF levels will be a one of the best screening independent prognostic markers in people with liver disease.