BACKGROUND:

Chronic liver diseases in Mexico were cause of 28,904 deaths in 2012. Its main complication was portal hypertension, manifested by esophageal varices (EV) occurring in 30% of patients.

OBJECTIVE:

To use the correlation of platelet/spleen index (PSI) with the degree of EV as a noninvasive diagnostic method and therapeutic decision.

MATERIAL AND METHOD:

An observational, analytical, cross-sectional and retrospective study was done in which data were collected from patients with chronic liver failure assisted at the Department of Internal Medicine of North Central Hospital Pemex, Mexico City, from January 2010 to April 2016. Cutpoints were calculated to determine the degree of association between PSI with the degree of EV; using the upper gastrointestinal endoscopy as the gold standard.

RESULTS:

We found a significance level with p-value of 0.005 and -0.425 Spearman Rho, defaming a statistically significant correlation between the variables in correlation to Dagradi Scale and a level of significance with p-value of 0.001 and -0.492 Spearman Rho in correlation to Baveno Scale. For Baveno scale it was observed that a PSI higher than 0.700 correlated with small EV, while a PSI lesser than 0.700 PSI correlated with large EV.

CONCLUSIONS:

This correlation can be a non-invasive useful method which allows to set priority in regard to diagnostic approach and to dis cern between starting drug treatment or doing endoscopic procedure.

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