Fluid retention in patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis is accompanied by oedema, ascites and hydrothorax. Actually it has not been property studied in Egypt, whether pericardial effusion or left ventricular
dysfunction occurs in our patients with such disease or not. This work was particularly dedicated to detect the prevalence of pericardial effusion and to detect the presence of left ventricular dysfunction in patients with
decompenSated hepatic cirrhosis using non invasive technique that is echocardiography. This work was conducted on 30 cases of hepatic cirrhosis, classified according to Child's classification into 3 grades, grade A 110 patients
with compensated hepatic cirrhosis), grade B (10 patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis] and grade C 110 patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis). The study included 10 normal controls. We found an incidence of mild to moderate echocardiographically detected pericardial effusion on 3 of 10 patients (30%) of grade B hepatic cirrhosis and, in 4 of 10 patients (40%) of grade C hepatic cirrhosis, so the incidence of pericardial
effusion in patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis in our study was 7 of 20 patients (35%). None of the patients of grade A hepatic cirrhosis or normal controls had pericardial effusion. This difference in
prevalence of pericardial effusion in patients with decompensated hepatic cirrhosis compared to controls proved to be statistically significant |
