Active clinical trials for "Hypertension, Portal"

How to construct a novel, non-invasive, accurate, and convenient method to achieve prediction of hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) is an important general problem in the management of portal hypertension in cirrhosis. We plan to investigate the ability of three demensional-magnetic resonance elastography (3D-MRE) to establish a risk stratification system and perform tailored management for portal hypertension in cirrhosis.

The presence of varices is a serious complication of portal hypertension in liver disease. To prevent variceal haemorrhage, screening and surveillance aims to detect high-risk varices related to varices size and determine the need for primary prophylaxis. Varices size evaluated by endoscopists might not be perfect reference, influenced by experience and machine. Endoscopic ruler is a novel tool to measure the varices size under the endoscopy. The investigators aim to evaluate the bias of varices size between endoscopists and endoscopic ruler as the reference.

Patients with advanced chronic liver diseases treated at the Vienna General Hospital of the Medical University of Vienna will be offered to participate in this prospective observational trial. Clinical parameters and laboratory parameters will be recorded for all patients and patients will undergo a regular follow-up schedule with clinical visits at the Vienna General Hospital. This study is linked to a biobank with serum/plasma, ascitic fluid, urine, GI tract mucosal biopsies, liver biopsies and stool collected from the study participants.

Patients with established liver cirrhosis, or end-stage liver disease (ESLD), are at high risk of developing liver cancer (hepatic carcinoma; HCC), portal hypertension, and sarcopenia, all which lead to significant morbidity and mortality. In this patient group the annual incidence of HCC is c. 2-8% and these patients are therefore included in ultrasound HCC screening programs every 6 months. In this study, the investigators are aiming to assess sarcopenia, clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH), and HCC with a single short magnetic resonance (MR) examination. A neck-to-knee MRI-examination will be acquired to derive body composition profile (BCP) measurements including visceral and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (VAT and ASAT), thigh fat free muscle volume (FFMV) and muscle fat infiltration (MFI), as well as liver fat (PDFF), spleen volume, and liver stiffness. Images will be further processed by AMRA Medical AB. AMRA's solution includes FFMV in the context of virtual control groups (VCG; using AMRA's vast database) and MFI. Furthermore, the spleen volume will be used to monitor the development of portal hypertension and explored together with other BCP variables in relation to hepatic decompensation events. HCC screening will be performed using so-called abbreviated MRI (AMRI), which consists of time series of contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. The AMRI images will be read by an experienced radiologist. In the literature the sensitivity of AMRI to detect HCC is above 80%, with a specificity of c. 95%, compared to ultrasound sensitivity of 60%. In treating ESLD there is a desire of physicians to be able to predict future decompensation events in order to initiate treatment to prolong survival. Moreover, the ability to assess processes of sarcopenia in the patient would be highly valuable for clinical practice due its severe clinical impact. Finally, ultrasound-based HCC screening has poor diagnostic performance and a MR-based screening approach would significantly improve treatment outcome as more treatable and earlier HCC may be identified.

Patients with clinically significant portal hypertension allocated to implantation of a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) at the Department of Medicine II of the University Medical Center Freiburg, Germany will be offered to participate in this prospective observational trial. Clinical and laboratory as well as outcome parameters will be assessed before and within the first 12 months after TIPS implantation following a regular follow-up schedule with clinical visits at the University Medical Center Freiburg. During follow-up visits, serum/plasma samples and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) are collected and stored in a associated biobank.

Portal hypertension contributed to the main complications of liver cirrhosis. Currently, hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) was the reference standard for evaluating portal pressure in patients with cirrhosis. However, the practice of HVPG is limited to require the extensive experience and highly specialized centers. In recent years, non-invasive methods were proposed to predict the degree of cirrhotic portal hypertension. Of them, liver stiffness measured by transient elastography had shown good performance for predicting clinically significant portal hypertension. However, liver stiffness only has a good correlation with portal pressure in the early stage of portal hypertension (HVPG<10 mmHg), because liver fibrosis is the main cause of portal hypertension in this period. In the stage of clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) (HVPG≥10 mmHg), increased portal vein inflow due to splanchnic vasodilation and hyperdynamic circulation, spleen stiffness may have a better correlation with HVPG than that of liver stiffness. Several studies have explored the combination of liver stiffness, platelet count and spleen stiffness for varices screening. However, there are few studies to report the above parameters for assessing CSPH and unneeded HVPG avoiding. Since the spleen was stiffer than the liver, the current vibration-controlled transient elastography examination is dedicated to the liver, rather than the spleen. Very recently, a novel spleen-dedicated stiffness measured by transient elastography was proposed. The prospective, multicenter study aims to add spleen stiffness as a supplementary parameter to establish new criteria for identify CSPH in patients with compensated cirrhosis, with a dedicated probe on transient elastography equipment to assess spleen stiffness and liver stiffness, and further develop a novel model based on spleen stiffness for predicting the liver decompensation in patients with compensated cirrhosis.

Background: - Noncirrhotic Portal Hypertension (NCPH) is caused by liver diseases that increase pressure in the blood vessels of the liver. It seems to start slowly and not have many warning signs. Many people may not even know that they have a liver disease. There are no specific treatments for NCPH. Objectives: - To learn more about how NCPH develops over time. Eligibility: - People age 12 and older who have NCPH or are at risk for getting it. In the past year, they cannot have had other types of liver disease that typically result in cirrhosis, liver cancer, or active substance abuse. Design: Participants will have 2 screening visits. Visit 1: to see if they have or may develop NCPH. Medical history Physical exam Urine and stool studies Abdominal ultrasound Fibroscan. Sound waves measure liver stiffness. <TAB>- Visit 2: Blood tests Abdominal MRI Echocardiogram Questionnaire Liver blood vessel pressure (hepatic venous portal gradient (HVPG)) measurement. This is done with a small tube inserted in a neck vein. They may have a liver biopsy. All participants will visit the clinic every 6 months for a history, physical exam, and blood tests. They will also repeat some of the screening tests yearly. Participants with NCPH will also have: Upper endoscopy test. A tube inserted in the mouth goes through the esophagus and stomach. At least every 2 years: Esophagogastroduodenoscopy. At least every 4 years: testing including HVPG measurements and liver biopsy. Participants without NCPH will also have: Liver biopsy and HVPG measurements to see if they have NCPH. Every 2 years: abdominal MRI and stool studies. The study will last indefinitely.

According to international guidelines, Hepatic Venous Pressure Gradient is the gold standard technique for portal hypertension measurement, but it is invasive and poorly available. Currently, surveillance of oesophageal/gastric varices is performed by upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. More recently, non-invasive tools to estimate portal hypertension have been developed and, among them, ultrasound elastography has been proposed as a technique to stratify patient risk to have portal hypertension. Aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between ultrasound evaluation (D-CEUS + elastography) and endoscopic parameters predictive of clinically significant portal hypertension in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Portal hypertension contributed to the main complications of liver cirrhosis. Currently, hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) was the reference standard for evaluating portal pressure in patients with cirrhosis. However, the practice of HVPG is limited to require the extensive experience and highly specialized centers. In recent years, non-invasive methods were proposed to predict the degree of cirrhotic portal hypertension. Liver stiffness is currently the most widely used method for noninvasive assessment of portal hypertension. The renewing Baveno VII recommended that liver stiffness ≥ 25 kPa by transient elastography is sufficient to identify clinically significant portal hypertension (specificity and positive predictive value > 90%). Although liver stiffness has a good predictive value for evaluation of clinically significant portal hypertension, it is difficult to apply in primary hospitals due to expensive equipment. Recently, a multicenter study has shown that artificial intelligence analysis based on ocular images can aid to screening and diagnosis hepatobiliary diseases. The patented technology of collecting and analyzing diagnostic images of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) based on mobile phone terminals has been realized. This technology mainly includes image acquisition, quality control and analysis, and clinical information collection. Liver cirrhosis belongs to the diseases of bulging and accumulation in TCM, and the most common symptoms are the liver and gallbladder damp-heat and liver stagnation and spleen deficiency. The main contents of inspection diagnosis in TCM for liver disease include the images of the tongue, eye and palms. In our study, the patented technology of TCM based on artificial intelligence is applied to establish a precise evaluation model of traditional Chinese and western medicine for portal hypertension with cirrhosis by combining the macroscopic characteristics of images and microscopic pathological indicators.

This single-center prospective observational study aims at characterization of pathogenesis of ACLF. There will be three different cohorts investigated with the main endpoint mortality in these groups. SAPIENT = Sepsis ACLF patients, to investigate the differences between ACLF and sepsis in cirrhosis PROACT = Portal mediators as ACLF Targets, to assess portal venous biomarkers in patients receiving TIPS leading to ACLF and identify potential treatment targets ELITE = prEdictors of beneficial LIver Tx in ACFL patiEnts, to assess in ACLF-patients receiving liver transplantation predictors of survival, which may improve selection of ACLF-patients for liver transplantation Secondary endpoints will be different in the three different cohorts and biological material will be collected for separate ancillary studies.