Clinical biochemistry
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Clinical biochemistry · Aug 2005
Comparative StudyEvaluation of plasma ammonia levels in patients with acute liver failure and chronic liver disease and its correlation with the severity of hepatic encephalopathy and clinical features of raised intracranial tension.
The present study was designed to (a) evaluate and compare plasma ammonia levels (PAL) in patients with acute liver failure (ALF) and chronic liver disease (CLD) with or without hepatic encephalopathy (HE); (b) correlate the severity of HE with PAL; and (c) correlate PAL with clinical features of raised intracranial tension in ALF. ⋯ Raised PAL appears to be an important laboratory abnormality seen in patients with ALF, and there seems to be a significant correlation between the severity of encephalopathy and PAL in these patients. However, among patients with CLD, the proportion of patients with PAL more than the upper limit of normal range is not significantly different between those with or without HE. Our study also suggests that high PAL in ALF patients appears to correlate with clinical features of cerebral edema and raised intracranial tension.