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Abstract

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis A virus is a small spherical non‐enveloped virus classified under the family Picornaviridae . It is highly contagious. Transmission is by person to-person contact through the fecal–oral route. Poor sanitation and personal hygiene, and consumption of contaminated food and water, are                   the commonest causes of HAV transmission. It is a viral liver disease that has a clinical spectrum ranges from asymptomatic infection to fulminant hepatitis and hepatic encephalopathy which is possibly reversible with treatment. The implementation of routine vaccination of children seems,              in the long term, the most reasonable way to get recurrent outbreaks under control. AIM OF THE STUDY: To evaluate the clinical and laboratory findings in HAV infection in patients with and without encephalopathy. METHOD: It was A prospective hospital based study was done from March 2018 to July 2019 carried out in                   the Children Welfare Teaching Hospital in Baghdad included 59 patients whom admitted, all were diagnosed as acute hepatitis A infection as defined by the presence of anti- hepatitis A immunoglobulin M. The clinical data collected by history taking and clinical examination, biochemical and imaging data collected in questionnaire papers for each patient, then all data  gathered in an Excel table and statistical analysis done. RESULTS: A total number  of 59 patients were admitted  to Children Welfare Teaching Hospital diagnosed                as hepatitis A infection, included in our study, 27 ( 45.7% ) Male, 8 ( 29.6 % ) of them had encephalopathy, and 32 ( 54%) were female,11 ( 34.3% ) of them had encephalopathy. the study had showed that the statistically significant factors for hepatic encephalopathy were PTT, INR, bleeding and ascites  . CONCLUSION: The present study has concluded that the rate of hepatic encephalopathy among patients with hepatitis A infection is relatively high, the abnormality in coagulation profile, the presence                          of bleeding tendency and ascites were statistically important factors in the development of encephalopathy in patients with hepatitis A infection, most affected children were between 5 and 10 years old, patients living outside of Baghdad had higher rates of encephalopathy.

DOI

10.52573/ipmj.2023.180894

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