The purpose of this study was to evaluate the non-invasive predictors of varices with a high risk of bleeding in paediatric cirrhotic patients.
This cross-sectional study included 158 children with cirrhosis, with a median age of 5.38 years and no history of upper gastrointestinal haemorrhage. Endoscopies were performed on the patients to check for esophageal varices. Varices with a high risk of bleeding were classified as having a medium to large calibre, the presence of red patches, or the presence of stomach varices, and were labelled as high-risk varices (HRV). As potential predictors of HRV, laboratory and clinical variables were investigated.
After initial endoscopy, HRV was discovered in 30 children. In the multivariate study, HRV was only predicted with the Risk Score (Rs). The RS with an area below the receiver operating feature curve of 0.764 was the greatest non invading predictor of HRV. The RS sensitivity utilised with a reduction point of −1.2 was 90% and the specificity was 53%. 96% of children with HRV have been accurately recognised with RS or APRi. The predictors given permit the correct identifying of HRV sufferers. In approximately one third of children with no HRV there is good sensitivity to RS >−1.2 or APRi >1.4 to identify HRV and prevent inappropriate endoscopy.
