Active clinical trials for "Esophageal and Gastric Varices"

In the last years, important advances have been done in the treatment and prevention of esophageal variceal bleeding. Experts agree that the combination of pharmacological and endoscopic therapy should be the first line therapy in the acute bleeding episode; whereas TIPS (transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt) is considered a rescue therapy. Nevertheless, some patients would require different therapies to act as a "bridge" until definitive therapy can be instituted. Balloon tamponade (using the Sengstaken tube) represents, up to now, the most widely used temporary "bridge" to TIPS. However, balloon tamponade is associated with a high incidence of serious adverse events. Recently, the use of self-expanding metal stents have been introduced in the treatment of acute variceal bleeding showing a very high hemostatic efficacy with no adverse events. The present study is directed to compare the efficacy free of adverse events and mortality of self-expanding metal stents vs balloon tamponade in patients with variceal bleeding refractory to medical and endoscopic therapy.

Background: Efficacy of endoscopic variceal sclerotherapy in achieving initial control of acute variceal bleeding and five-day haemostasis has been shown to significantly improve when vasoactive drug is added. However, there is limited data whether addition of somatostatin, to endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) improves the efficacy of EVL. Aim: To compare EVL plus somatostatin versus EVL plus placebo in control of acute variceal bleeding. Patients and methods: Consecutive cirrhotic patients with acute variceal bleeding from esophageal varices were enrolled in the trial. After emergency EVL, patients were randomized to receive either somatostatin (250 mcg/hr) or placebo infusion. Primary endpoint was treatment failure within 5 days. Treatment failure was defined as fresh hematemesis ≥2 hour after start of therapy or death.

Previous studies showed that combination of endoscopic therapy with vasoconstrictor is better than either vasoconstrictor or endoscopic therapy alone in achieving the successful hemostatsis of acute variceal bleeding. The rationale of using vasoconstrictor is to enhance the efficacy of hemostasis by endoscopic therapy. Nowadays, endoscopic variceal ligation (EVL) has replaced endoscopic injection sclerotherapy (EIS) as the endoscopic treatment of choice in the arresting of acute esophageal variceal hemorrhage. EVL alone can achieve hemotasis up to 97% even in cases of active variceal hemorrhage. However, early rebleeding due to ligation-induced ulcer may be encountered. It appears that prevention of esophageal ulcers and bleeding by a proton pump inhibitor may be more logical than using a vasoconstrictor after cessation of bleeding by EVL.

HVPG is the gold standard for measurement of the presence and severity of portal hypertension. Clinically Significant Portal Hypertension (CSPH) is defined as HVPG ≥ 10 mmHg. Reducing the HVPG by use of non-selective beta blockers has been associated with reduced risk of variceal hemorrhage, ascites, SBP and thus has a positive effect on survival. Response to Beta blocker therapy is defined as a reduction of HVPG by 10% or to ≤ 12 mmHg. HVPG is an invasive method of assessment of portal pressures, with lack of availability at many centres. While non-invasive tests to predict CSPH have been defined, predicting response to beta-blockers non-invasively is an unmet clinical need. The aim of this study is to use splenic stiffness measurement, a non-invasive test, as a surrogate to assess the response of HVPG to beta blocker therapy.

The investigators aimed to verify the efficacy and safety of nadroparin calcium warfarin sequential (NWS) anticoagulation therapy after endoscopic therapy in PVT patients with cirrhosis and AVB.

Bleeding from gastric varices (GV) is associated with high mortality. Injection of cyanoacrylate (CYA) using standard gastroscopes has demonstrated higher hemostasis and lower rebleeding rates compared to band ligation or sclerotherapy. Nevertheless CYA treatment is known to be associated with significant adverse events. Pulmonary embolism due to CYA injection is a serious and sometimes fatal complication of this therapy. Romero-Garcia et al. recently showed that, even these patients usually have respiratory symptom, this complication can be present in asymptomatic patients and with only CT pathological images showing it. On the other hand, risk of glue embolism, has been described to be dependent on the volume of CYA injected, being significantly greater with high volume. Other complications related to CYA injection are, hemorrhage from post injection ulcers, fever, peritonitis, needle impaction, and even death. Also the injection material can cause serious damage to the endoscope. Currently endoscopic treatments are CYA injection under direct visualization using a standard gastroscope and treatment under EUS guidance with injection of CYA, coils or both. However, to date, it is unknown whether one of these techniques is technically more feasible or causes less adverse events than the other. Treatment under EUS guidance may improve results because of precise targeting of the varix lumen or afferent feeding veins. This allows the vein to be obstructed with a small amount of CYA, less than used for the "blind" injection of GV with standard endoscopic technique and may reduce the risk of glue embolism. EUS can confirm varix obliteration by using Doppler. Also visualization of GV by using EUS is not impaired by blood or food in the stomach and thus can be performed in the setting of active hemorrhage.

The purpose of the study is to find patients's response to terlipressin and octreotide during hepatic venous pressure gradient measurement by observing portal and systemic hemodynamics.

This is a prospective, double blind controlled trial in which patients with esophagic variceal bleeding treated with standard therapy (endoscopic variceal ligation(EVL) + B-blockers), will be randomized to receive statins or placebo. They will be followed up during 12 months to determinate whether statins are effective in prevention of variceal bleeding recurrence and evaluate patient survival. Randomization will be stratified according to the degree of hepatic insufficiency, assessed by the Child-Pugh classifications (A,B or C).

Cirrhosis leads to portal hypertension and development of gastroesophageal varices, which are the most common cause for bleeding in cirrhosis and a major cause of death. The American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) recommends screening endoscopy every 2 years to evaluate for gastroesophageal varices, and annual surveillance for those with small varices on endoscopy. Unfortunately, endoscopy is costly, requires sedation, is poorly tolerated, is subject to high inter-observer variability, and is associated with risks that include bleeding, esophageal injury and aspiration. Noninvasive methods for evaluation of gastroesophageal varices are needed. CT is noninvasive, rapid, less expensive than endoscopy, requires no sedation, provides a quantitative measure of the size of the varices, and allows for assessment of para-esophageal varices, varices in other body locations, ascites, other signs of portal hypertension, patency of liver vasculature, and detection, diagnosis and staging of hepatocellular carcinoma. Single-Energy CT (SECT) has relatively high accuracy in prospective studies for detection of any and large varices but is associated with suboptimal contrast opacification of gastroesophageal varices. Dual-Energy CT with the GE scanners with GSI Xtream (DECT) improves the contrast-to-noise ratio by 60% compared to SECT and is currently standard of care at UAB for evaluation of cirrhosis. The primary objective of this study is to determine the accuracy of DECT for detecting any varices and high-risk varices. The study hypothesis is that the accuracy (AUROC) of DECT will be >0.90 and >0.95 for detecting any and high-risk varices in a prospective pilot study (N=50) that uses endoscopy as the reference standard. This will be a single-center pilot observational prospective IRB-approved study. A total of 50 adult patients presenting to UAB Endoscopy for surveillance endoscopy to detect and grade gastroesophageal varices will be enrolled.

In the Western world, liver cirrhosis is a significant issue. Acute variceal bleeding (AVB) is a considerable complication of cirrhosis associated with high mortality. Still, the combination of endoscopic variceal ligation and terlipressin-like treatment decreases the risks of rebleeding and mortality. This therapy with terlipressin usually was used for 72 hours. However, there are some studies demostrating that using terlipressin for 24 hours could control variceal bleeding with fewer side effects.