Utility of combined use of elastography and von Willebrand factor antigen/thrombocyte ratio in prediction of gastroduodenal mucosal portal hypertension related vascular lesions

Background: Liver cirrhosis is the most important cause of portal hypertension, esophageal varices (EVs) represent its major complication as they may rupture and bleed with increased mortality rate. vWF-Ag is an established and valuable marker for determining the grade of fibrosis and cirrhosis and for mortality in patients with cirrhosis. Aim of our work is to search for the utility of combined use of elastography and Von Willebrand Factor Antigen/Thrombocyte Ratio in prediction of gastroduodenal portal hypertension related vascular lesions and identify suitable cutoff values for predicting these lesions. Patients and methods: 80 cirrhotic patients, were divided into 2 main groups, Group I included 20 patients with no evidence of portal hypertension related vascular lesions as verified by endoscopic examination (disease control group), group II, included patients with vascular lesions and was divided into 3 subgroups groups, group IIa included 20 patients with esophageal varices or gastro-esophageal varices, group IIb included 20 patients with isolated gastric varices, group IIc included 20 patients with portal hypertension related lesions other than esophageal and gastric varices.