Frequency Of Liver Abnormalities Detected By Abdominal Ultrasound In Tertiary Care Hospital Peshawar

Background: The liver is located in the upper right-hand portion of the abdominal cavity, beneath the diaphragm, and on top of the stomach, right kidney, and intestines. The liver is the storage location for fat-soluble vitamins and handles cholesterol homeostasis. It stores iron and copper. It plays a role in hematology with clotting factor and protein synthesis. The liver plays a role in heme breakdown into unconjugated bilirubin and conjugates it.

AIM: The aim of conducting this research to find the frequency of liver abnormalities that it can be further proceeded to take measures and reduce the frequency of liver disease among tertiary care hospitals Peshawar.

METHOD: This was descriptive cross sectional study conducted in Northwest General Hospital and Research Centre Peshawar during May to October 2021. Data were collected on self-administer questionnaire and analysed using SPSS version 21.

RESULTS: The study was done at Northwest General Hospital Peshawar. From the study over a period of (4months) there were total 269 patients coming for abdominal ultrasound to the radiology department. Of these, 120 (44.6%) male and 148 (55.4%) female. Overall ratio of liver abnormality patients is 120 (44.6%). In liver abnormality patients there were 58 males (21.5%) and 62 females (23%). The most liver abnormality patients are between the age of 30-49 years. The tendency of fatty liver among the liver abnormalities were high related to the other abnormalities (30.9%), Ascites (3.3%), Hepatomegaly (3.3%), Liver Cirrhosis (3.0%), Medical Jaundice (1.5%), Portal Hypertension (1,1%), Chronic Hepatitis (0.7%), Hepatic Cyst (0.4%), Hydatid Cyst (0.4%), Liver Mass (0.4%). Benign Tumour, Calcification, Hepatic Granulomas, Intrahepatic Stones and Liver Abscess were not found among these 269 patients.

CONCLUSION: According to our study the prevalence of liver abnormalities is higher in females than males. Major people affected by liver abnormalities are above the age of 30-39 years. In our research fatty liver was the most common finding by abdominal ultrasound. The abnormalities that were detected in our research were hepatomegaly, ascites, chronic hepatitis, hydatid cyst, hepatic cyst, medical jaundice, liver mass, liver cirrhosis and portal hyper tension in 269 patients.

Keywords: Liver abnormalities, frequency, abdominal ultrasound.