Study on assessment of renal function in chronic liver disease

Renal dysfunction is common in chronic liver disease. The cause of this renal dysfunction is either multi-organ involvement in acute conditions or secondary to advanced liver disease.

The study was undertaken to assess the renal function in chronic liver diseases and find out the association of alteration of renal function with gradation of liver disease. (assessed by child-pugh criteria) and to find out the association of alteration of renal function among the cases of chronic liver disease of different aetiology.

This cross-sectional, observational study was undertaken in Department of General Medicine, Calcutta National Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata during March 2012 to July 2013 with 50 admitted patients of chronic liver disease after considering the exclusion criteria. The patients were interviewed with a pre-designed and pre-tested schedule, examined clinically, followed by some laboratory investigations relevant to diagnose the aetiology of chronic liver disease, and to assess the severity of liver and renal dysfunction. Data was analysed by standard statistical method.

Eighty six percent of the patients were male and the mean age of study population was 43.58 y, 68% patients suffered from alcoholic liver disease, followed by 14% patients had chronic Hepatitis-B, 10% patients developed acute kidney injury, 20% had hepato renal syndrome and 14% had IgA deposition. The distribution of serum urea and creatinine across the categories of Child Pugh classification tested by Mann-Whitney test and the distribution was statistically significant.

The present study has found significant association between severity of liver dysfunction and certain parameters of renal dysfunction.