ABSTRACT

Aim: To examine the diagnostic importance of tumor necrosis factor alphain chronic hepatitis C infection with or without liver cirrhosis.

Study Design:Prospective study

Place and Duration of study: Department of Gastroenterology, Bolan Medical Complex Hospital, Quetta from 1^st January 2019 to 30^th June 2019.

Methodology:Total 90 Patients of chronic hepatitis C were divided into two groups, group I and II, Group I contains 45 patients with liver cirrhosis and group II consist of 45 patients without cirrhosis. The ageof these patients were between 30 to 50 years. The clinical history and examination were done while blood and liver biopsy samples were taken from all the patients and sent to the pathology department for diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C infection and liver cirrhosis.

Results:There were 50(55.56%) male patients and 40(44.44%) female patients. Mean age of patients 39.4±5.36. The serum TNF alpha was significantly higher in liver cirrhosis 71.96±18.35 than the patients without cirrhosis that was 42.72±13.5 with p-value <0.0001.

Conclusion:Application of TNF alpha is a good and accurate predictor of chronic hepatitis C with and without liver cirrhosis that would be essential to reduce the requirement of liver biopsy among chronic hepatitis C patients.

Keywords:Tumor necrosis factor alpha, Hepatitis C virus, Chronic hepatitis C, Liver disease