الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Liver cirrhosis progresses from compensated to decompensated cirrhosis with hepatic encephalopathy as one of its complications.
The study aimed to evaluate the role of BDNF as a diagnostic marker for MHE in HCV cirrhotic patients with or without hepatic schistosomiasis.
This study included 80 participants; 60 of them were patients with liver cirrhosis caused by HCV. Those patients were divided into 3 groups: 20 patients with OHE due to HCV cirrhosis (group 1), 20 patients without OHE due to HCV cirrhosis (group 2), 20 patients with cirrhosis due to a combination of HCV and hepatic schistosomiasis without OHE (group 3). 20 healthy individuals were included in the study (group 4).
All participants underwent clinical and laboratory investigation to assess liver functions, virology, serum ammonia and serum BDNF levels.
Analysis of data obtained from the current study revealed the following:
Regarding the CBC findings, all patients had thrombocytopenia and anaemia. While only patients with combined HCV and schistosomiasis infection had a mean WBC lower than healthy controls.
Regarding the liver enzymes, the median levels of ALT and AST in all patients were higher than in healthy controls. Serum albumin was lower in all patients than in healthy control and the least in OHE patients.
Patients with OHE had higher me