Correlation Between Brain MRI Findings and Serum Ammonia Levels in Hepatic Encephalopathy
Brain MRI Findings and Serum Ammonia Levels in Hepatic Encephalopathy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54393/pjhs.v7i1.3301Keywords:
Hepatic Encephalopathy, Hyperammonemia, Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Serum Ammonia LevelsAbstract
Diagnosis or seeing prognosis of hepatic encephalopathy (HE) from a diagnostic laboratory testing or imaging modality point of view lacks a gold standard. Objectives: To correlate the brain MRI findings and serum ammonia level in HE patients for better diagnosis and prognosis. Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional analytical research was conducted at Shahida Islam Medical College and Hospital for six months, from August 2024 to January 2025. After ethical approval, using non-probability consecutive sampling, all patients with documented increased levels of ammonia and HE with MRI Brain were included. SPSS version 23.0 was used for data analysis. For correlating the ammonia levels with MRI brain findings, point-biserial Pearson correlation was applied, keeping p<0.05 as statistically significant. Results: The study of 207 hepatic encephalopathy patients found a mean serum ammonia level of 111.55 ± 41.8 µmol/L, with higher levels in severe cases (134.8 ± 37.45 µmol/L). MRI abnormalities included white matter changes (54.11%), basal ganglia changes (46.86%), and cortical atrophy (31.4%). A strong positive correlation (r=0.62, p<0.001) was observed between serum ammonia levels and MRI severity scores. Conclusions: Serum ammonia levels showed a significant positive correlation with the severity of brain MRI findings in hepatic encephalopathy, indicating that higher ammonia levels are associated with more pronounced neuroimaging abnormalities.
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