Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: Portal hypertension (PH) is an increase in pressure in the portal vein and its tributaries. The importance of PH is defined by the frequency and severity of its complications including variceal bleeding, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, and hepatorenal syndrome, which represent the leading causes of death and of liver transplantation in patients with cirrhosis. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the clinical profile of patients with portal hypertension. Materials & methods: A total of 25 patients with portal hypertension were enrolled. Complete demographic details of all the patients were obtained. Only those patients were enrolled which were diagnosed clinically, biochemically, radiologically and endoscopically with portal hypertension. Complete medical and clinical history of all the patients was obtained. Grading of the esophageal varices was done as Grade 0, grade 1, grade 2 and Grade 3. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software. Results: Constitutional symptoms were found to be present in 100 percent of the patients, while abdominal distension was found to be present in 88 percent of the patients. Pallor was found to be present in 80 percent of the patients while icterus was found to be present in 72 percent of the patients. Splenomegaly was found to be present in 72 percent of the patients while anaemia was found to be present in 60 percent of the patients. In 32 percent of the patients, esophageal varices were of grade 3 while in 28 percent of the patients, esophageal varices were of grade 2. Conclusion: Constitutional symptoms and abdominal distension are the most common components of clinical profile among portal hypertension patients. Key words: Clinical profile, Portal hypertension