Prediction of esophageal varices in cirrhotic patients with Serum - Ascites Albumin Gradient

Objective: to identify commonest saag serum-ascites albumin gradient value in patients with cirrhotic disease having esophageal varices and to discover values of serum ascites and serum albumin. material and methods: this cross sectional was conducted on 100 cirrhotic patients with ascites to calculate saag level in serum and ascitis fluid the value of saag was examined (≥1.1 g/dl) and high saag was measured to be ≥1.1 g/dl and low saag when it is <1.1g/dl to rank the esophageal varices. all the cases included in the study under went upper gi endoscopy. results: from total 100 patients,male were 62 and female were 38. saag was 2.01 ± 0.52. esophageal varices (ev) found in 87 patients and were absent in 13 patients. grades of the esophageal varices highlighted significant correlation with degree of saag (p<0.01) with r =0.55 (p<0.01) of pearson correlation coefficient. with uses of roc curve a saag value i.e. ≥1.65 ± 0.014 g/dl was an correct marker of the occurrence of ev; cutoff points for the higher predictive value 98% were positive,and 96% were nagetive. conclusion: in the cirrhotic patients having ascites,the occurrence of ev is related only with saag and size of ev are mainly associated to the degree of saag. a saag value of ≥1.65 ± 0.014 g/dl is a helpful mean to predict the occurrence of ev in cirrhotic patients with ascites.