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Query: UMLS:C0023890 (cirrhosis)
 42,195 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

To many people it may be disappointing that many uncertainties remain with respect to the assessment of PHT. Only a few findings such as increased WHVPG and varices prove PHT. However, we have gained considerable knowledge. PHT is the consequence of a number of changes which involve the intrahepatic and extrahepatic circulation. Alcohol, viruses and drugs may disturb parenchymal architecture and cause cellular swelling, collagen and fibrin deposition and invasion with inflammatory cells. These processes finally may evolve into cirrhosis. Although in initial stages the parenchymal disturbance per se may account for PHT, increasingly impaired liver function results in metabolic changes which cause altered haemodynamics. Advanced PHT in parenchymal liver disease is the result of the complex interaction between local and systemic changes. The current techniques for the assessment of PHT are helpful for the qualitative aspects: increase in pressure can be assessed directly or indirectly; the portal venous system can be visualized even without arteriography. Gastroscopy remains a standard procedure for diagnosing PHT. Ultrasound-endoscopy is particularly helpful to confirm fundic varices and to assess changes after sclerotherapy. Increasingly, non-invasive methods to quantify PHT have become available such as the Duplex scanner. However, limitations and pitfalls need to be realized. The quantitative assessment remains (as yet?) a technique for research centres. It is obvious that the clinician in general practice can do without most of the more sophisticated techniques which have been discussed here. For the time being, PHT, and particularly variceal bleeding, is most often treated with endoscopic sclerotherapy. For that reason, only in a minority of the cases very detailed studies are required. However, the increasing knowledge opens new perspectives for the treatment and prevention of PHT on various levels. This may be a rather specific treatment of parenchymal liver disease (antivirals, d-penicillamine for Wilson's disease or venesections for haemochromatosis), drugs which may reduce local tissue damage via more general pathways (colchicine, steroids) and drugs which influence flow. Undoubtedly one of these years a more selective blocker of portal venous pressure will become available. Optimal assessment for that type of therapy makes it mandatory to master at least a few more advanced techniques. With respect to noncirrhotic PHT with causes which may vary from congenital or acquired clotting abnormalities to anatomical malformations (oesophageal web) and 'natural healthy herb tea', measures can be taken. It is clear that before treating any of the more rare causes, a proper diagnostic work-up is required.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Assessment of portal hypertension: understanding will improve treatment. 203 36

Portopulmonary hypertension (P-PHT) is sporadically found in cirrhosis patients who have portal hypertension. We retrospectively investigated the clinical features of six patients with P-PHT and compared their hemodynamics and arterial oxygenation with data from 60 cirrhosis patients without pulmonary hypertension (non-PHT cirrhosis) admitted to our department. The mean pulmonary artery pressure and pulmonary vascular resistance index of P-PHT patients ranged from 25 to 57mmHg and from 399 to 1405dynesscm(-5)m(-2), respectively, and their arterial oxygenation was impaired. The systemic vascular resistance and cardiac index of P-PHT patients were similar level to those of patients with non-PHT cirrhosis. We found 10 patients with non-PHT cirrhosis in whom pulmonary vascular resistance exceeded the critical level for pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension (120dynesscm(-5)). These patients showed a distinctive hemodynamic profile, including a decrease of cardiac output due to contraction of the plasma volume and resultant elevation of systemic vascular resistance. However, the decrease of cardiac output contributed little to the elevation of pulmonary vascular resistance. Our findings suggested that certain factor(s) were acting to raise pulmonary vascular tone in these patients, which might cause chronic damage to the pulmonary vascular bed, leading to the onset of pulmonary hypertension.
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PMID:Hemodynamic features and impaired arterial oxygenation in patients with portopulmonary hypertension. 1597 71