Abstract

Dr. Syeda Binte-E-Zahra*, Dr. Mohammad Faisal Hameed and Dr. Nabila Arshad

ABSTRACT

Objective: To determine the frequency, etiology and clinical profile of patient with acute viral hepatitis at tertiary care hospital. Patients and Methods: This is a cross sectional study conducted at Nishtar Hospital Multan, and included patients of age 10 years and above. Duration of study was 6 months from July 2017 to December 2017. Total 50 patients were included in the study. Patients with acute onset of jaundice suggestive of acute hepatitis, with at least one positive serological viral marker (IgM HAV, IgM HEV, hepatitis B surface antigen and anti-HCV) were included in the study. Patients with clinical or ultrasonographic evidence of biliary obstruction or chronic liver disease were excluded. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) positive but IgM-anti-HBc negative patients and anti-HCV positive but HCV RNA negative patients were also excluded. Those subjects who were identified as HBsAg positive were further explored by IgM anti HBc to detect acute HBV infection while the data was collected on pre-designed proforma and analyzed in SPSS 16. The frequency and percentages was calculated while the numerical statistics were used to compute mean ±SD. Results: Total fifty patients with acute viral hepatitis of different etiologies were detected during six months study period, majority of the patients were males 35 (70%) and from rural population 38 (76%). The mean ±SD for age and duration of disease for whole population was 23.82±8.86 and 3.92±1.32. Though isolated viral hepatitis A (52%) and C (14%) has been found to be the commonest cause of acute viral hepatitis while the hepatitis B occupied 12% whereas co-infection were also observed as hepatitis A and E (6%), hepatitis B and D (6%) and hepatitis B and C (10%) respectively. Conclusion: The viral hepatitis are commonly and frequently observed in tertiary care hospital of developing countries with hepatitis A will be the identified as the most common etiological factor.