Role of Complete Blood Picture in Predicting the Etiology of Extrahepatic Cholestasis

Extrahepatic cholestasis has various etiologies including benign causes (benign stricture, chronic pancreatitis, choledochal cyst, mirizzi syndrome, etc...), choledocholithiasis, malignant causes (cancer pancreas, gallbladder cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, etc....), parasitic infestations (fasciola hepatica, ascaris lumbricoides, etc......) and other causes. it is essential to detect the exact cause of extrahepatic cholestasis in order to determine treatment options. diagnosing such conditions depends on clinical examination, laboratory investigations, imaging studies, endoscopic procedures, biopsy and even surgical intervention. some of these investigations are expensive, not available, or carry risk to the patients. moreover non of them is accurate 100%. Complete blood count is already available, easy to obtain, not invasive investigation. In these study we are trying to evaluate the role of complete blood count parameters namely RDW, MPV, PDW, PCT, NLR, PLR in the differential diagnosis of extrahepatic cholestasis.

Inclusion criteria

• patients with extrahepatic cholestasis

Exclusion criteria

• age under 14 years
• previous bilio-pancreatic interventions
• hemoglobinopathy
• splenomegaly
• myeloproliferative disorders
• diabetes mellitus
• recent blood transfusion in less than one month