The sample size of 381 was calculated based on a previous study by Kumar et al., who found the prevalence of portal hypertensive gastropathy in patients with cirrhosis to be 55%, with 5% precision and 95% confidence level [19].
They were divided into three groups: (1) the portal hypertensive gastropathy group--203 patients with esophageal varices (EV) and PHG, (2) the esophageal varix group--41 patients with EV but no PHG, and (3) the control group--137 patients with no EV or PHG.
Classification and scoring of portal hypertensive gastropathy were performed according to the Baveno II scoring system; the mild mucosal mosaic pattern was given 1 point, and the severe pattern, 2 points.
The participants were divided into three groups with no significant differences regarding distribution of age, sex, or Child-Pugh class: (1) the portal hypertensive gastropathy group--203 (53.28%) patients with EV and PHG, (2) the esophageal varices group--41 (10.76%) patients with EV but no PHG, and (3) the control group--137 (35.96%) patients with neither EV nor PHG (Table 1).
Portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) is a common gastric mucosal anomaly in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension [1].
The limitation of this study was the absence of a patient group with portal hypertensive gastropathy and no esophageal varices.
Blood ammonia levels correlate with the presence, severity, and score of portal hypertensive gastropathy in cirrhosis suggesting a causal relationship and encouraging trials of ammonia-lowering treatments for the management of severe PHG with a tendency to bleed.
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