European Journal of Cardiovascular Medicine

Background: Low blood platelet counts are a defining characteristic of the illness known as thrombocytopenia. It is the most typical haematological aberration observed in people with chronic liver disease.1 It has been documented in 64%–84% of individuals with various aetiologies of liver cirrhosis or fibrosis.2 Thrombocytopenia has been regarded as one of the key signs of advanced liver disorders as a result. OBJECTIVES: 1. Identifying the correlation of platelet count, spleen size, and their ratio with the presence of esophageal varices in patients with liver cirrhosis without any previous evidence of GI bleeding. 2. Assessing the ability of these parameters as non-invasive tools to predict the presence of esophageal varices. MATERIAL & METHODS:  Study Design: Prospective Observational study. Study area: Dept of Medicine, Dept of medical Gastroenterology, Outpatient department and Inpatient. Study Period: January 2019 to December 2020. Study population: Liver cirrhotic Patients attending Dept of Medicine, Dept of medical Gastroenterology, Outpatient department and Inpatients. Sample size: Study consisted a total of 50 subjects. Sampling Technique: Simple random technique. Study tools and Data collection procedure: In this prospective observational study of 50 patients, newly diagnosed patients with liver cirrhosis without a history of gastrointestinal bleeding were included. Relevant clinical parameters were assessed, which included physical examination, complete hemogram, biochemical workup, upper GI endoscopy and ultrasonographic measurement of spleen long axis diameter. Platelet count/ spleen diameter ratio were calculated for all patients. Results: Patients were grouped according to Child-Pugh Classification of Cirrhosis. Majority of study group patients belonged to Child-Pugh class C (66.00%) followed with class B (30.00%). Majority of patients belonged to the category of ratio between 501-1000 (48.00%) followed with<500 (24.00%), 1001-2000 (20.00%) and >2000 (8.00%). CONCLUSION: we conclude that the incidence of thrombocytopenia and lower PC/SD ratio can be used to establish higher grades of varices. It can be used to identify the subset of patients requiring endoscopy for prophylactic management of esophageal varices. It may further reduce the burden on the endoscopy units, avoid unnecessary screening endoscopies and management costs for bleeding varices.