Chronic splenomegaly in Nairobi, Kenya. II. Portal hypertension
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Date
1987Author
De Cock, K.M
Awadh, S
Raja, R. S
Wankya, B. M
Jupp, R. A
Slavin, B
Arap Siongok, T. K
Rees, P. H
Bertrand, J
Lucas, S. B
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Eighty-five patients with chronic splenomegaly and proven oesophageal varices were studied at Kenyatta National Hospital, Nairobi. The major defined groups were hepatosplenic schistosomiasis (24%), cirrhosis (20%) and portal vein occlusion (11%). Hyper-reactive malarial splenomegaly (tropical splenomegaly syndrome) was considered as the cause of oesophageal varices in only one patient. In 26% of cases liver biopsy was non-diagnostic and the extrahepatic portal vein was demonstrated radiologically to be patent. Such patients were thought to be suffering from idiopathic portal hypertension, not previously described elsewhere in Africa. Hepatitis B surface antigen was detected in 12% of controls and in 58% of patients with cirrhosis (p less than 0.001). Some serological marker of previous hepatitis B virus infection was present in 92% of patients with cirrhosis and in 79% of controls. Kamba patients from Machakos and Kitui Districts were significantly more prevalent than expected among these 85 cases of portal hypertension.
URI
http://hinari-gw.who.int/whalecomwww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/whalecom0/pubmed/3127951http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/30399
Citation
Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 1987;81(1):107-10.Collections
- Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) [10377]