Active clinical trials for "Hypertension, Portal"

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most frequent cause of chronic liver disease in our environment. Preliminary data suggest that portal hypertension may exist in the initial phases of NAFLD due to mechanisms that have not yet been elucidated. The clinical relevance of its development in these initial phases is unknown, while in more advanced phases new data are required to confirm the close relationship between portal hypertension and the risk of decompensation described in other etiologies. Likewise, the influence of fibrosis and portal hypertension on the cardiovascular risk of patients with NAFLD is unknown. The aim of the present multicenter project is to characterize the presence of portal hypertension and the mechanisms involved in its development in the different stages of NAFLD, to assess the association between the degree of portal hypertension and the development of portal hypertension-related complications, to know the early cardiovascular risk in the different stages of the disease, and to identify noninvasive biomarkers of the presence and severity of portal hypertension.

According to the BCLC guidelines, surgical resection of hepatocellular carcinoma complicating cirrhosis is restricted to patients with preserved liver function, single nodule without vascular invasion and with hepatic venous gradient below 10 mmHg. However, other guideline treatment, especially from eastern countries demonstrated that surgical resection is safe and feasible and provides better survival than the treatment recommended by the BCLC system for patients with similar stage. The primary goal of this study is to assess the impact of HVPG on short and long-term outcomes in HCC patients who undergo liver resection.

This study is to establish a noninvasive diagnostic platform based on hemodynamic information for the assessment of liver fibrosis, liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension.

role of RDW as anon invasive method for predicting liver cell failure & portal hypertension in cirrhotic patient

Portal hypertension (PH) results from the increase of portal flow resistance in fibrotic tissue of the liver in patients with chronic liver diseases, leading to complications such as varices formation and variceal bleeding, ascites formation, spleenomegaly and hypersplenismus, systemic haemodynamic disorders and porto-systemic shunts formation. Early detection of PH in patients with chronic liver diseases is clinically important as it should change patient management in order to prevent the formation/onset or recurrence of PH complications. Hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) measurement is the gold standard for the assessment of the severity of PH. However, it is an invasive method with its risks, and relatively costly. On the other hand transient elastography (TE) emerged as a non-invasive, easy, safe and low cost method with the potential to assess the severity of PH, as liver stiffness (LS) and spleen stiffens (SS) measured by TE showed very good correlation with HVPG. Real-time 2D shear wave elastography (RT-2D-SWE) is an ultrasound elastography method reliable for non-invasive assessment of fibrosis stage especially in chronic viral hepatitis, but only preliminary data exist on the correlation of RT-2D-SWE measured LS/SS with and HVPG. In this study we hypothesized that LS and SS measured by RT-2D-SWE correlate with HVPG enabling RT-2D-SWE to be used for the assessment of severity of PH. The primary aim of this study is to analyse correlation between LS and SS as assessed by RT-2D-SWE and TE with the grade of portal hypertension as assessed by HVPG. The secondary aims are: 1) to analyse clinical outcomes of these patients in order to determine if LS and/or SS as assessed by RT-2D-SWE might predict adverse outcomes (liver decompensation, death or HCC development), and 2) to compare clinical performance (AUC) of RT-2D-SWE and TE for the assessment of the PH severity as well as for predicting clinical outcomes. Patients with suspicion of having compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) as assesed by non-invasive methods (transabdominal ultrasound, laboratory findings, FIB-4 and APRI score, and LS measurements by TE), will be included. Since positive predictive value of non-invasive methods for cirrhosis is generally not very reliable, these patients will be offered transjugular liver biopsy and HVPG measurements as gold-standard methods to define the stage of liver disease and severity of PH. These patients will undergo LS and SS measurements by RT-2D-SWE on Aixplorer SuperSonic Imagine ultrasound system and HVPG measurements as well, with transjugular liver biopsy performed during the same session. After SWE™ and HVPG measurement, 5-year follow-up is planned, including standard surveillance: laboratory findings, transabdominal US every six months and upper-GI endoscopy according to relevant guidelines, as well as treatment according to relevant guidelines as indicated: beta blockers, endoscopic variceal ligation, etiologic treatment and dietary measures. Appropriate statistical analysis will be undertaken after the enrollment period, as well as after follow-up period.