A study on probable correlation of AST/ALT (De Ritis) ratio with the advancement of underlying severity of alcoholic liver disease in the North East Indian population

Abstract

Background: Alcohol consumption has been linked with one of the most common causes of liver disease, and the AST/ALT (De Ritis) ratio has emerged as a useful indicator for its diagnosis. Our study is on patients of alcoholic liver disease, graded as per Child-Pugh classification, and an effort was made to examine whether AST/ALT ratio can indicate the underlying severity of liver damage caused by alcohol abuse.
Materials and methods: A sample of 142 patients of alcoholic liver disease undergoing treatment in Satribari
Christian Hospital, Guwahati, India from December 2014 to February 2016 was selected for the study. Blood samples were collected and AST/ALT ratio and Child-Pugh score of all the patients were calculated from the biochemical and clinical parameters.
Results: The mean age of the subjects was 49 years and there were more males (97.89%) than female patients, who were diagnosed with alcoholic liver disease. Using Child-Pugh score, subjects were grouped into A, B and C. Estimation of AST/ALT ratio shows that the mean values of the ratio were 1.7350, 2.0751 and 2.7608 respectively for A, B and C classes and there exists statistical difference among mean values of the ratio across class groups. Further, this study highlights that there exist a positive correlation (r= 0.362 & p=0.000) between Child-Pugh score and the AST/ALT ratio. In fact, this was found to be statistically significant. Conclusion: On the basis of results obtained, it can be said that the value of AST/ALT ratio has a positive correlation with the advancement of the underlying liver damage.