Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy Using Neuropsychometric Tests

Abstract

Hepatic encephalopathy is threatening complication of both acute and chronic liver failure. Minimal hepatic encephalopathy is the initial stage of encephalopathy, has no neurological symptoms with the manifestation of cognitive impairment, and therefore is quite difficult to diagnose. Signs of minimal encephalopathy are present in approximately 70 % of patients with liver cirrhosis and are diagnosed only during psychometric tests. The paper deals with examination of 40 patients with chronic viral hepatitis C and 30 patients with liver cirrhosis using the flicker test and number connection test. Conducting these tests made it possible to detect minimal hepatic encephalopathy in 50.0 % of patients in group I and in 44.8 % of patients in group II and to determine further treatment policy.

Keywords

• hepatic encephalopathy
• diagnosis
• psychometric tests