الفهرس 
Introduction
Chapter 1: Liver cirrhosisOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The present prospective study was carried out in the Internal Medicine department, EL-Minia university hospital along the period between June 2008 to November 2009. Fifty inpatients with decompensated liver cirrhosis were recruited in the study.
The study also included 20 apparently healthy volunteers consisted the control group.
The study aimed to assess the prevalence of HPS in Egyptian patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis; determine the predictive values of some clinical features in diagnosis of this syndrome and evaluate pulse oximeter with contrast-enhanced echocardiography (CEE) in detecting it.
All patients and healthy volunteers were subjected to the following:
A- Thorough history questionnaire.
B- Clinical examination.
C- Laboratory investigations:-
D- Imaging studies:
E- Pulmonary function tests.
F-Assessment of hepatopulmonary syndrome:
Results:
Subgroup Ia: It consisted of 17 cirrhotics (34%) with HPS. Subgroup Ib: It comprised 33 cirrhotics (66%) without HPS,
Conclusions:
• HPS is a frequent complication among cirrhotics.
• Occurrence of HPS was not related to either age or gender.
• Occurrence of HPS was not influenced by the severity of liver cirrhosis as assessed by either Child-Pugh or the MELD scores, nonetheless, serum albumin was proved to be a significant independent predictor for diagnosing HPS.
• Occurrence of HPS was closely related to the degree of portal hypertension as assessed by portal vein diameter.
• Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis was the most frequent associate with HPS.
• Dyspnea and cyanosis were the most sensitive, while platypnea and spider navi were the most specific clinical features.
• Pulse oximeter is a convenient, non-invasive, and accurate screening test for diagnosing HPS in cirrhotics.