Abstract
Despite the prevalence of splenomegaly as a sign in many disorders, there have been no studies that correlate the degree of organomegaly with the symptoms generally ascribed to splenic enlargement. The degree of splenomegaly was compared with five overt symptoms of mechanical displacement, i.e. chronic abdominal pain, abdominal discomfort, early satiety, pain while lying on the side, or attacks of acute (colicky) left upper quadrant pains. We have also employed splenomegaly as seen in Gaucher disease as a paradigm to determine whether there is a correlation between the degree of splenomegaly and the parameters of hypersplenism. Although there was a statistically significant correlation between degree of splenomegaly and blood counts, this proved to be clinically negligible. Surprisingly, there was also no correlation between degree of splenomegaly and any of symptoms investigated.
Original language | American English |
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Pages (from-to) | 812-816 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | British Journal of Haematology |
Volume | 106 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1999 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Abdominal pain
- Gaucher disease
- Hypersplenism
- Splenomegaly
- Ultrasound