Abstract

Patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension have been associated with pulmonary complications e.g.; dyspnoea, haemoptysis, cor pulmonale etc. These can be a spectrum of major pulmonary complications affecting CLD found in various studies (incidence - 40% in patients planned for Liver Transplant). Aim of the study: To find the Prevalence and Clinical spectrum of pulmonary complications in CLD patients. Material and Methods: Observational cross-sectional, prospective study with purposive sampling (100 samples) in Medicine Department, M.L.B. Medical College, Jhansi from Dec 2020-October 2022. Results: Maximum patients were below 55 years of age (57%) with Alcohol as the commonest aetiology (58%) and personal history (78%). HPS (33%) is the commonest pulmonary complication followed by HH (30%), PH (18%) and POPH (9%) CLD with Child-Pugh Class C had maximum complications (59%), followed by Class B (26%) and Class A (15%). SP02/Pa02 categorized HPS into Mild-HPS (42.4%), Moderate-HPS (18.2%), Severe-HPS (30.3%) & Very Severe-HPS (9.1%). ECG/TTE categorized PH/POPH into High-grade (59.3%), Intermediate-grade (22.2%) and Mild-grade pulmonary-hypertension (18.5%). Conclusion: The major pulmonary complications of CLD includes HPS, HH, PH and POPH. Pulse oximetry is a simple and non-invasive method used for detecting and grading HPS severity. Imaging studies viz; CXR/HRCT-Thorax/ECG/Trans-Thoracic-Echocardiography facilitate in identifying Hepatic-Hydrothorax, Pulmonary-Hypertension and Portopulmonary-Hypertension which complicates CLD. Since this is a Hospital-based study with purposive-sampling, therefore further studies need to be carried out to corroborate or defy the study results.

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