Evaluation of aspartate amino transferase to platelet ratio index as a non invasive marker for liver cirrhosis

Abstract

Background: Cirrhosis is a condition in which the liver slowly deteriorates and is unable to function normally due to chronic long lasting injury. Liver biopsy is considered as a gold standard for the diagnosis of cirrhosis and has many problems like bleeding, infective peritonitis which limit use of liver biopsies in all patients.Methods: A comparative study was done (90 cases and 90 controls) who fulfilled the inclusion criteria in a tertiary center.Results: The present study was conducted using a total of 180 participants, 90 USG diagnosed cases of liver cirrhosis was compared with 90 healthy controls. The mean AST level in the cirrhosis was 66.50±27.06 as compared to 21.26±6.52 in controls which was statistically significant. In this study the sensitivity and specificity of APRI was found to be 100.0% and 84.44% respectively, and the positive and negative predictive values were 86.54% and 100% respectively with significantly Area under the curve (AUC) (0.999, P>0.01).Conclusions: A simple index like Aspartate platelet ratio index, consisting of 2 readily available laboratory results (AST level and platelet count), can predict cirrhosis with a high degree of accuracy.