PROTHROMBIN TIME AS AN INDICATOR OF SEVERITY OF LIVER DISEASES

Objective: to confirm that prothrombin time is by and large the most sensitive indicator of hepatocellular function. materials and method: two hundred and twenty patients were recruited in the study from military hospital rawalpindi and combined military hospital peshawar over one year period 1993. all the patient went through a detailed history, hematological and screening tests. the student 't' test was used to assess the significance of results obtained. results: 97% of the patients were males while 69% of the total patients were in the age group of 21-30 years. 93% had viral hepatitis and out of these only 19.50% were hbs ag positive. the common symptoms in order of frequency were yellow sclera, loss of appetite, dark urine. jaundice (97.2%) and palpable liver (81.36) were the most common physical signs. patients who had pt difference less than 3 seconds from the control had mild hepatitis, while patients who had pt difference more than 3 seconds from the control, had severe hepatitis. conclusion: pt is a good prognostic indicator of severity of liver diseases and correlates well with the elevation of bilirubin and alt.