STUDY TO REVEAL THE ASSOCIATION OF LIVER FUNCTION TEST WITH INTERDIALYTIC WEIGHT GAIN AND ITS COMPLICATIONS IN HEPATITIS C POSITIVE ESRD PATIENTS

Background: Patients on hemodialysis  are at increased risk of hepatitis C and are associated with increased mortality rate . The risk rate is 10 fold greater in hemodialytic patients than  in general population  because of the risk of nosocomial  transmission. The prevalence of HCV among patients varies and is greater in developing countries.

Objective: The aim of our study was to find any association between liver function tests (LFTs) and interdialytic weight gain(IDWG) in ESRD patients in hepatitis C infected patients with ESRD.

Methods: We conducted this prospective cross sectional study in Department of nephrology and Dialysis centre, Lahore General Hospital, Lahore from December  2019 to February 2020.Patients of ESRD who attended the clinic hemodialysis were asked for their participation in this study. Consecutive patient schedule for dialysis were potentially asked to complete questionnaire. Quantitative determination of the liver function tests (LFTs), calcium, phosphate, bilirubin, albumin and complete blood count (CBC) were done. Pre-dialytic and post-dialytic weights were noted and interdialytic weight gain was calculated.     

Results: Out of total 56 patients of ESRD with HCV+, 21 were males and 35 were females. Mean for the ALT, AST, ALP, SGPT, SGOT and interdialytic weight gain were calculated. Paired sample T test results for both SGOT and SGPT with IDWG were statistically significant (p<0.01).

Conclusion: lLFTs did correlate with interdialytic weight gain in hepatitis C infected patients with ESRD .