Active clinical trials for "Liver Failure"

Acute on chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a distinct syndrome in patients with chronic liver disease with rapid clinical deterioration and has high short term mortality within one month.Despite aggressive clinical care, only half of the patients could survive an episode of ACLF. The investigators hypothesized that the early treatment with therapeutic plasma exchange with plasma and albumin in ACLF patients might improve overall survival in carefully selected patients by removing cytokines, chemokines and toxic substances.

The scarcity of deceased donor organ supply has driven the practice of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT). Right lobe LDLT (RLDLT) has developed over the last 10 years to extend the benefit of LDLT to adult patients. With technical refinement, the results have significantly improved but bile duct complications remain the Achilles heel that affects the recipient's long-term outcome.Hepaticojejunostomy (HJ) was originally the standard technique for bile duct reconstruction in RLDLT but in recent years, duct-to-duct anastomosis (DDA) has been adopted by most transplant centers. The advantages of duct-to-duct reconstruction include a shorter operation time, less infection complications, more physiologic enteric functions and easier endoscopic access to the biliary tract but bile duct complication, particularly stricture is the major concern. The development of stricture is likely to be related to the blood supply of the anastomosis. We hypothesize that HJ has a better blood supply and is associated with a lower overall bile duct complication rate than duct-to-duct anastomosis. We propose a randomized trial to test this hypothesis and to compare various outcome measures between HJ and duct-to-duct reconstruction. The results of the study will set the standard for the technique of biliary reconstruction in RLDLT and will further advance this procedure.

Safety and Efficacy of Everolimus in adult de novo liver transplant recipients.

Safety and Efficacy of Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplantation for Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) has been reported to improved outcomes of acute-on-chronic liver failure(ACLF). More randomization controlled studies are needed to confirm the effect of MSC treatment for ACLF. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of mesenchymal stem cells in ACLF patients. This study is an double-blind multicenter randomized and placebo-controlled study. Patients with with ACLF will be randomly assigned to receive MSC treatment (experimental) or standard medical treatment (control). Three times of MSC infusion (0.1-1x10E6cells/kg body weight) via peripheral vein will be given to the experimental group (once per week). The primary outcome is 12 week mortality. Secondary outcomes are clinical remission rate and changes of liver function indices and liver function scores.

In the past ten years, the extracorporeal liver support system has been widely used in clinical practice as a first-line treatment of liver failure. Plasma exchange (PE) can remove toxic substances in ACLF patients, reduce liver damage, and replenish coagulation factors, albumin and immunoglobulins, thereby improving the liver's microenvironment and accelerating liver regeneration and functional recovery. The ACLF study showed that PE can improve the symptoms of patients and improve the short-term prognosis of patients, but there are still studies showing that PE does not significantly improve the short-term prognosis of patients. Therefore, the therapeutic effect of PE on ACLF is still controversial. We consider that some people may benefit from plasma exchange, and new indicators are needed to guide disease stratification treatment. Our multi-center prospective data show that plasma exchange has a tendency to improve survival in ACLF-2. After stratifying with ADP inhibition rate in ACLF-2, patients with ADP inhibition rate greater than 30% will be treated 28 days after PE treatment. The prognosis is improving. Therefore, we consider that PE is expected to reduce the mortality of patients with ACLF 2 with an ADP suppression rate greater than 30%, but prospective large-sample clinical studies are still needed.

Primary Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of 72 hour NAC treatment regimen in the management of ACLF Secondary Objective To evaluate the six weeks mortality and length of hospital stay in ACLF patients treated with NAC Randomized, Double blind pilot study of IV N-Acetyl cysteine for the treatment of ACLF. Participants will be randomized into intervention and control arm using block randomization by computer generated random numbers. Efficacy will be assessed by clinical improvement in symptoms and signs of decompensated chronic liver disease (CLD). To assess safety degree of adverse reactions will be observed. Periodic assessments until 28 day will be done consisting of Physical exam, safety assessments, vital signs and lab tests. Dose of Drug: 72 hour regimen consisting of three doses of intravenous N-Acetyl cysteine will be used for a total dose of 300mg/kg. Number of Patients: 100 Accrual period: 15 months

The researchers will recruit patients with liver disease at Parkland Hospital. Patients will fast overnight, and the next morning will receive an oral mixture of [U-13C3]glycerol (25 mg/kg) plus unlabeled glycerol (25 mg/kg). The total dose of glycerol will be 50 mg/kg in 100 milliliters of water. The taste is slightly sweet. Blood will be drawn at 60 min and 120 min after the ingestion. Blood glucose will be isolated and analyzed by NMR. The presence of [5,6-13C2]- and [4,5-13C2]glucose indicates preserved mitochondrial function. The researchers anticipate that patients with severe liver disease will show a decrease in mitochondrial function and will inform biosynthetic function of liver mitochondria. After the first 6 successful exams (see power analysis, below), healthy volunteers (age-, gender-, and race-matched) will be studied at the AIRC and subject to the same protocol.

HBV-related liver failure (HBV-LF), a dramatic clinical syndrome, is characterized with massive necrosis of liver cells. Liver transplantation might be the most effective therapy for HBV-LF. However, there are a lot of problems such as lack of donors, surgical complications, transplant rejection, and high cost, which could limit the application of liver transplantation. It is demonstrated that mesenchymal stem cells could directionally differentiate into hepatocytes and cholangiocytes in injured liver, as well as reduce inflammation of the liver by immune regulation. In this study, we assess the safety and efficacy of human bone marrow and umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells transplantation for patients with HBV-LF.

Hypoxic hepatitis (HH) is reported to be the most frequent cause of elevated aminotransferase levels in hospital. Up to 10 % of critically ill patients develop HH during the course of their intensive care unit (ICU) stay. Occurrence of HH is a life threatening event and ICU-mortality is reported to be up to 60%. Early therapeutic intervention is of central prognostic importance in patients with HH to improve the hemodynamic impairment as early as possible, to reduce hyperammonemia and hepatic encephalopathy, to avoid progression of organ failure and to improve outcome. Studies reported that Molecular Adsorbent Recirculating System (MARS®) therapy improved the hemodynamic situation in patients with acute and acute on chronic liver failure. The study hypothesis is that MARS® therapy in critically ill patients with severe HH improves hepatic hemodynamics and function and consecutively the course of the disease. 40 patients with suffering of severe HH with aminotransferase levels > 40 times the upper limit of normal of more than 12 hours will be randomized 1:1 to MARS® therapy (n=20) or conventional therapy (n=20). 4 MARS®-sessions will be performed on three consecutive days, each for at least 12 hours. Treatment will be continued under special circumstances. The maximum duration of the treatment phase is 7 days. The primary endpoint is the difference of the indocyanine plasma disappearance rate at day 7. The expected duration of the study is 2 years.