Medicine
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This repository contains the published and unpublished research of the Faculty of Medicine by the staff members of the faculty
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Item Association between road accidents and low-grade hepatic encephalopathy among Sri Lankan drivers with cirrhosis: a prospective case control study(Biomed Central, 2016) Subasinghe, S.K.C.E.; Nandimuni, Y.; Ranasinghe, S.; Niriella, M.A.; Miththinda, J.K.N.D.; Dassanayake, A.S.; de Silva, A.P.; de Silva, H.J.BACKGROUND: Low-grade hepatic encephalopathy (LGHE) comprises minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) and grade 1 hepatic encephalopathy. LGHE has no or minimal recognizable symptoms but has mild cognitive and psychomotor deficits. Studies in Western countries have demonstrated increased road accidents (RA) among patients with MHE. Our objective was to investigate the association between Sri Lankan LGHE phenotype and RA. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective, case–control study was conducted in the University Medical Unit, North Colombo Teaching Hospital, Ragama Sri Lanka. Patients with cirrhosis of any aetiology, without OHE, who had been driving during previous 1 month were included. A similar number of age matched, healthy control drivers were also enrolled. Both groups were subjected to five pencil-paper based psychometric tests used to detect LGHE in cirrhotics. Self-reported RA during the previous 1 month were recorded: categorized as ‘major’ when resulted in hospitalization of the involved, ‘minor’ when there were injuries, but not serious enough for hospitalization of the involved and ‘other’ when limited to damages to vehicle or environment without injuries. RESULTS: Among 55 drivers with cirrhosis and LGHE [males, median age 53 years (range 30–60)], 7 (12.7 %) reported RA compared to 6 (10.9 %) among 55 controls [males; median age 51 years (range 30–60)]. There were no ‘major’ accidents in either group. 2/55 (3.6 %) cases and 2/55 (3.6 %) controls reported ‘minor’ accidents. CONCLUSION: There was no increased frequency of RA among Sri Lankan drivers with LGHE compared to healthy controls. This is with the limitation of the study based only on self reported RA.Item Profile of gastric varices among Sri Lankan cirrhotics(Wiley Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2012) Ranawaka, C.K.; Mettananda, K.C.D.; de Alwis, R.; Miththinda, J.K.N.D.; Wijewantha, H.S.; Niriella, M.A.; Dassanayake, A.S.; de Silva, A.P.; de Silva, H.J.BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Gastric varices (GV) can result in life threatening bleeding with a higher mortality than esophageal varices. There have been no studies on the characteristics of GV among Sri Lankan cirrhotics. Aim of this study was to perform a descriptive analysis of GV among a cohort of Sri Lankan cirrhotic population. METHODS: We analyzed medical records of all upper gastrointestinal endoscopies performed on cirrhotics, at the University Endoscopy Unit, Colombo North Teaching Hospital, Ragama, Sri Lanka from 2006 to 2011. Characteristics of GV, demographics, indications and fi ndings at endoscopy were analyzed and they were compared among patients with Oesophageal varices (EV). RESULTS: Out of 641 cirrhotics screened, 628 had a complete data set for analysis. GV was detected in 70 (11%) patients; male:female 8.7:1.3; mean age 55 (SD = ± 10.7) years. From these 48/70 had EV (Gastro Oesophageal Varices GOV1 – 18/48, GOV2 – 30/48) in addition to GV. Only 22/70 had Isolated GV (IGV1–10, IGV2–12). Among patients with GV 38 (54%) had portal hypertensive gastropathy and 3 (4%) had gastric antral vascular ectasia. Nineteen (27%) of GV were detected on presentations with UGIB (6 with IGV, 13 with GOV), whereas 51 (73%) were detected on routine screening. EV was detected in 288 (46%) of cirrhotics (Isolated EV 240, GOV 48). Seventy seven (32%) of EV were detected on presentations with UGIB, whereas 163 (68%) were detected on routine screening. There was no statistically significant difference on presentation with UGIB between isolated EV (77/240) vs. IGV (6/22) patients (p = 0.64; χ2 = 0.2). CONCLUSION: The profi le of GV among our cirrhotics is comparable to previous reports from other centres. Findings suggest that in cirrhotic patients presenting with UGIB, a careful search for the presence of GV is as important as identifying EV, even among patients who have EV.Item Development and validation of Sinhala version of the chronic liver disease questionnaire (CLDQ)(Wiley Blackwell Scientific Publications, 2013) Miththinda, J.K.N.D.; Ranawaka, C.; Pathmeswaran, A.; Dassanayake, A.S.; de Alwis, W.R.S.; Mufeena, M.N.F.; Senanayake, S.M.; Niriella, M.A.; de Silva, A.P.; de Silva, H.J.OBJECTIVE: The Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire (CLDQ) is a validated tool measuring the Health Related Quality of Life among cirrhotics. Aim of this study was to develop and validate a Sinhala version of the CLDQ (sCLDQ) and to test its correlation with the degree of liver dysfunction in a cohort of Sri Lankan patients with cirrhosis. METHODS: A standard translation method was used to develop the sCLDQ. Pilot testing was done with relevant cultural and language adaptations. The final version was self-administered to stable CLD patients, together with the WHO Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) validated Sinhala version, for comparison. sCLDQ was re administered 4 weeks later to test internal consistency and reliability. The validation was assessed by Cronabach’s alpha, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and Pearson’s correlation coefficient. ANOVA and Pearson’s correlation were used to test correlation with the degree of liver dysfunction. RESULTS: Validation was done with 214 subjects, mean age 55.6 (SD 10.4) years; male 77.6%. Overall Cronabach’s alpha was 0.926. Itra-class correlations varied from 0.431 to 0.912 and all were significant (p 0.000). Retesting was done on a sub-sample of 18 subjects. Test-retest correlation was 0.695 (p 0.008). WHO-BREF was applied on a sub-sample of 48 subjects. There was a significant correlation (Pearson’s r = 0.391; p = 0.004) between sCLDQ and WHOQOL BREF. sCLDQ was significantly associated with MELD (r = −0.13; p = 0.038), MELD Sodium (r = −0.223; p = 0.002), Bilirubin (r = −0.124; p = 0.036), Serum Sodium (r = 0.172; p = 0.009), Serum Albumin (r = 0.201; p = 0.003) and Child grade (f = 3.687; p = 0.027). CONCLUSION: sCLDQ is a reliable and valid tool to assess QoL of Sri Lankan cirrhotics and correlates well with known indices of disease severity.