Usefulness of albumin bilirubin platelet score as a predictor tool for risk esophageal varices in patients with compensated cirrhosis presenting in a Tertiary Care Hospital.

Objective: To determine the accuracy of albumin bilirubin platelet (ALBI-PLT) score to predict risk esophageal varices in patients presented with compensated cirrhosis in tertiary care hospital. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Department of Gastroenterology, Liaquat National Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. Period: February 2024 to August, 2024. Methods: Total 165 Patients of both genders were included. The albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grade and platelet count were added to determine the ALBI-PLT score. The esophageal varices were expected as “present”, when ALBL-PLT score >3. Data were compiled and analyzed using IBM-SPSS Statistics, version 26.0. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis of ALBI score grades and ALBI-PLT score grades was used for detection of the cutoff value. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated for the cut off. Results: In a total 165 patient, 149 (90.3%) had esophageal varices. Among these 165 patients, 57 (38.3%) had amall esogphageal varices. Mean ALBI, and ALBl-PLT were 0.017±0.300, and 4.28±0.75 respectively. ALBl-PLT was found to have excellent ability to diagnose patients with and without esophageal varices based on the ROC (AUC=0.916). The sensitivity, and specificity for ALBl-PLT ≥2.0, ALT-PLT≥3.50, and ALBl-PLT≥4.50 were 100% and 0%, 89.3% and 87.5%, and 51.7% and 100%, respectively. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that ALBl-PLT score was found to have excellent ability to diagnose patients with and without esophageal varices.