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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

I read with great interest the article by Zaman et al¹ on identification of a subgroup of cirrhotic patients requiring endoscopy (low platelet count and advanced Child-Pugh classification criteria).

A perusal of the data, however, presents several interesting observations. Extrapolation of data from Table 1 reveals that 28 of 66 patients (prevalence of 42%) with Child-Pugh class A had either small or large gastric varices, suggesting that approximately 2 of every 5 cirrhotic patients in this category would not be diagnosed to have varices, if endoscopy were to be done in this group.

Internists face serious challenges in communicating the indication of diagnostic modalities to their patients. An expert's perception of risk is based on the likelihood of risk and potential outcome of risk, such as disease, injury, and death. Patients, however, evaluate risk as a combination of likelihood x outcome x outrage factors.² Outrage factors are determined by the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Risk Factors for the Presence of Varices in Cirrhotic Patients Without a History of Variceal Hemorrhage
Atif Zaman, Thomas Becker, Jodi Lapidus, and Kent Benner
Arch Intern Med. 2001;161(21):2564-2570.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT