Abstract： Objective To develop a non-invasive method for diagnosis of esophageal varices in patients with cirrhosis induced by viral hepatitis.Methods The clinical data,including results of blood routine,liver function,blood coagulation and color ultrasonography,of patients with cirrhosis induced by viral hepatitis from the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University during December 2011 and December 2012 were retrospectively analyzed.Patients with hematopoietic diseases and portal vein thrombosis were excluded,and no patients received beta-blocker,endoscope band ligation,and splenectomy treatment.According to gastroscopic results,all patients were divided into no/mild group and mid/serious group.Correlations between clinical data and esophageal varices were analyzed by Logistic regression method,and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate their values for diagnosis of esophageal varices.Results Totally 96 patients were enrolled in the study,30 without or with mild esophageal varices,and 66 with mid/serious esophageal varices.There were significant differences on platelet (PLT),plateletcrit (PCT),platelet distribution width (PDW),alanine aminotransferase (ALT),aspartate aminotransferase (AST),spleen thickness (ST) and PLT/ST between no/mild group and mid/ serious group (Z/t =-2.842,-3.151,-2.549,-3.463,-3.601,-4.360and 11.877,P＜0.05 or P ＜ 0.01).Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that only ST was statistically different between two groups (OR =1.127,OR 95％ confidence interval (CI):1.012-1.256,P =0.030).The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.728,and 95％ CI:0.628-0.827.With the cut off value of 52.5 mm,the sensitivity,specificity,and Youden index of ST in diagnosis of esophageal varices were 53.0％,90.0％ and 0.43,respectively.Conclusion ST measured by color ultrosonography can be used for early diagnosis of mid/serious esophageal varices.