Validity of diagnostic indicators in liver cirrhosis

Abstract EN

Forty five patients with liver cirrhosis were compared with 60 other chronically ill patients in an attempt to evalu¬ate the use of leading symptoms, leading signs, laboratory tests and various combinations of the three, in the accu¬rate diagnosis of liver cirrhosis.

It was found that a com¬bination of leading symptoms and leading signs gave a high sensitivity rate but with an increased likelihood of false positives which needed to be mitigated by certain labora¬tory tests.

It is recommended that the prevalence of the disease within the community is also taken into account when interpreting results.