Active clinical trials for "Liver Cirrhosis"

Liver cirrhosis with the further development of portal hypertension implies structural and vasculature alteration in the portosplenic circulation. Esophagogastroduodenoscopy is the standard of care for the detection and treatment of esophageal varices, as esophageal varices serve as a surrogate for estimating a portal pressure gradient > 10 mmHG. Endoscopic ultrasound evaluation allows the detection of peri-esophageal collateral veins, perforating veins and para-esophageal collateral veins, which has demonstrated to be effective for the prediction of esophageal varices recurrence after variceal eradication. The investigators aimed to compare esophagogastroduodenoscopy versus endoscopic ultrasound evaluation for the early diagnosis of portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients.

Variceal bleeding (VB) is a life-threatening complication of cirrhosis with a 6-week mortality of approximately 15%-20%. The 1-year rate of recurrent VB is approximately 60% in patients without prophylaxis treatment. Therefore, all patients who survive VB must receive active treatments to prevent rebleeding. Usually, these patients are submitted to rebleeding prophylaxis with endoscopic band ligation (EBL) combined with non-selective beta-blockers (NSBB). Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) are reserved for those who failed endoscopic plus medical treatment. A recent meta-analysis comparing combination therapy to monotherapy with EBL or drug therapy has demonstrated that combination therapy is only marginally more effective than NSBB alone. This suggests that NSBB is the cornerstone of combination therapy. The lowest rebleeding rates are observed in patients on secondary prophylaxis who are hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) responders (defined as a reduction in HVPG below 12 mm Hg or > 20% from baseline). A recent study demonstrated that patients who have their first episode of variceal bleeding while on primary prophylaxis with NSBB have an increased risk of further bleeding and death, despite adding EBL. These patients possibly require alternative treatment approaches, such as TIPS. The aim of the present study was to compare the effect of TIPS vs. EBL + NSBB for the prevention of rebleeding in NSBB non-responder for primary prophylaxis.

This retrospective study will be of 12 months duration where 40 T2DM patients coming to FORTIS C-DOC hospital in OPD with F3 fibrosis will be included in the study. The population will be representative of different socio-economic strata of the society. Clinical and dietary profiles, phenotypic markers (acanthosis nigricans, buffalo hump, skin tags, xanthelasma, double chin, arcus, hirsutism) anthropometric assessments body mass index; biochemical markers like liver function test, HbA1c, prothrombin time/INR, and fibroscan will be assessed.

The prevalence of portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in patients with liver cirrhosis is 5-20%. Current evidence regarding the effect of portal vein thrombosis on the prognosis of cirrhotic patients remains under debate. Considering that PVT potentially elevates the portal pressure and thereby increase the risk of variceal bleeding, we focus on the patients with high-risk varices and variceal bleeding as the study population. Thus, the main goals are to analyze the effect of PVT on the incidence of first variceal bleeding in patients without any prior bleeding history but with high-risk varices, the incidence of recurrent variceal bleeding in patients with a history of variceal bleeding, and the treatment failure rate of variceal bleeding in patients with acute variceal bleeding. Certainly, the survival is also observed in all patients.

Reliable methods of evaluating liver fibrosis using noninvasive techniques in the pediatric population are limited and inconclusive. Liver biopsy remains the gold standard; however, it requires sedation in pediatric patients, has a risk of hemorrhage, and provides unreliable results secondary to sampling error. Sonoelastography is a new method of evaluating liver disease that eliminates these pitfalls. There are 3 types of quantitative sonoelastography currently in use. Transient elastography is a non-imaging based technique used in adults to measure liver fibrosis in which a mechanical vibrator creates a low-frequency wave causing shear stress in the liver at a fixed depth. This technique does not work in small livers and, therefore, is not appropriate for pediatric patients. Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging (ARFI) and Shear Wave Imaging (SWE) use real-time ultrasonography and administer focused high-intensity, short-duration pulses to produce shear waves in the liver tissue. ARFI calculates the degree of tissue displacement and creates an elastogram or measurement of the stiffness of the sampled liver tissue without corresponding images. It is limited since only a small sample or region of interest (ROI) can be obtained, and it is unable to provide a corresponding elasticity map of the tissue. SWE is the newest elastography technique. It measures tiny displacements of tissue in a larger ROI with corresponding ultrasound images which provides a side by side image of the liver and color-coded elasticity map of the sampled tissue. Advantages include a larger ROI and simultaneous viewing of the selected region of interest which provides better anatomic detail with a corresponding color map of the tissue elasticity which may result in more accurate scoring of the stage of fibrosis. There are a few studies of ARFI in the pediatric population. Studies using SWE for evaluation of liver fibrosis are also few, and, all but one in adults. However, these studies have shown it to be an accurate method for liver fibrosis staging. Use of SWE in assessing liver fibrosis in pediatric patients may represent an accurate noninvasive alternative to liver biopsy in evaluating liver fibrosis as well as avoid the use of sedation.

The purpose of the study is to compare the effect of HVPG-guided individualized therapy and non-HVPG guided traditional therapy in cirrhotic patients for secondary prophylaxis.

This is a 5-year (+30 days) long term follow up study to evaluate the safety of Livercellgram in subject who participated in and completed the Livercellgram Phase 2 trials (refer to ClinicalTrials.gov.Identifier: NCT01875081).

Background: In patients with cirrhosis on secondary prevention of variceal rebleeding with non-selective beta-blockers (NSBBs), the risk of rebleeding and death is markedly higher in those failing to achieve a good hemodynamic response (HVPG reduction ≥20% of baseline values or ≤12mmHg). However a substantial proportion of non-responders will never rebleed, thus appearing protected by NSBBs although non-detected by HVPG response. This low sensitivity hampers risk stratification and diminishes the cost-effectiveness of assessing the hemodynamic response to NSBBs. This is particularly relevant in prevention of rebleeding since in this scenario the risk of rebleeding and of other portal hypertension related complications is very high, which calls for early institution of effective therapy. Baseline HVPG bears prognostic significance with regards to risk of developing varices, decompensation, hepatocellular carcinoma and death1,2,7,8,18-27. However, no studies have investigated whether adding data from baseline HVPG may improve the sensitivity of the criteria defining a good or poor hemodynamic response. Hypothesis: Adding data from baseline HVPG may improve the sensitivity of the criteria defining a good or poor hemodynamic response. Objective: Exploring the prognostic value of basal HVPG that better discriminate those non-responders who do not re-bleed under prophylactic treatment with NSBBs. Methods: Observational cohort study. Training set: patients from two longitudinal studies conducted at the Hepatic Hemodynamic laboratory of the Hospital Clínic of Barcelona to assess the prognostic value of HVPG changes during continuous therapy with NSBBs for preventing variceal rebleeding. Validation set for chronic hemodynamic response: patients from two longitudinal studies conducted at the Hepatic Hemodynamic laboratory of the Hospital de Sant Pau of Barcelona to assess the prognostic value of HVPG changes during continuous therapy with NSBBs for preventing variceal rebleeding; a third cohort composed of patients undergoing acute hemodynamic response to intravenous propranolol will be studied. All patients received a preplanned follow-up in the outpatient clinic at 1, 3, and 6 months, and every 6 months thereafter in the original studies. End-point: bleeding from portal hypertensive sources (esophago-gastric varices or portal hypertensive gastropathy) (defined according to Baveno criteria 32), death or liver transplantation. Ethical aspects: All patients have given their written informed consent to use their data in the original studies.

30% of ketamine users complain of abdominal discomfort. Long-term ketamine use is associated with hepatotoxicity and pathologic changes to the biliary tract. Yet the prevalence of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary pathologies in ketamine users has not been well-described. The investigators plan to recruit a large number of ketamine users based on referrals from different Psychiatry clusters in Hong Kong and to investigate the underlying cause of abdominal discomfort, describe the prevalence of different gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary pathologies and describe their long-term outcome.

We have several ways to appropriately determine renal function in healthy patients and in several diseases, in cirrhotic population we dont have a precise tool that has sufficient precision that reflects glomerular function, although it has been reported that cystatin C, because of its nature could improve diagnostic accuracy to determinate the renal function in this population. The investigators hypothesize that glomerular filtration obtained from cystatin-C-derived formulas are more accurate when compared to creatinine-derived formulas with DTPA-Tc99 (diethylene-triamine-pentaacetate- technetium-99) as gold standard.