Ascitic cholesterol is superior to serum-ascites albumin gradient in the detection of non-portal hypertensive ascites and the diagnosis of mixed ascites.

BACKGROUND: The diagnostic value of ascitic cholesterol in the differential diagnosis of ascites is controversial.

AIM: To investigate the diagnostic performance of ascitic cholesterol in the differential diagnosis of ascites.

METHODS: Consecutive patients with new-onset ascites were enrolled prospectively. The pertinent data were collected from 629 patients with all forms of ascites.

RESULTS: In the training cohort, determination of the ascitic cholesterol level was a highly effective method of distinguishing non-portal hypertension (NPH) from portal hypertension (PH). At the pre-determined cut-off value of 45 mg/dL, the sensitivity of ascitic cholesterol was superior to the serum-ascites albumin gradient (SAAG) in identifying NPH-related ascites; the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.945. In the patients misdiagnosed based on SAAG classification, the diagnostic accuracy of ascitic cholesterol was 69%. The ascitic cholesterol level showed excellent performance in identifying peritoneal lesions in patients with mixed ascites.

CONCLUSION: Ascitic cholesterol is an excellent measure for detecting NPH ascites and for identifying peritoneal lesions in mixed ascites. Thus, this simple and cost-effective measure should be determined in patients with new-onset ascites (www.chictr.org.cn; ChiCTR-DCD-15006907).