Active clinical trials for "Liver Cirrhosis"

Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is a frequent and severe complication of cirrhotic patients with ascites.Early diagnosis and prompt treatment with effective antibiotics significantly improves the prognosis of this complication. The recommended treatment is a third generation cephalosporin given intravenously for five days.Following recovery patients should receive secondary prophylaxis with a quinolone such as oral norfloxacin 400 mg/day.Also all patients should be assessed for liver transplantation. Most commonly used antibiotic for both primary and secondary prophylaxis is norfloxacin 400 mg once daily.Other antibiotics like cotrimoxazole,ceftriaxone,ciprofloxacin and rifaximin have also been evaluated in various studies.Use of antibiotic prophylaxis has been evaluated to decrease recurrence of SBP in treated groups than in control groups. Rifaximin is an oral antimicrobial agent with broad-spectrum activity that is gut-selective and nonsystemic. Rifaximin appears to have a low level of selection for resistant bacterial mutants. Intestinal decontamination is known to increase peripheral blood counts by suppressing endotoxemia and inhibiting the effects of cytokines and nitric oxide on blood counts. With this mechanisms rifaximin has been already proven to decrease recurrence of hepatic encephalopathy.The most important mechanism for development of SBP is bacterial translocation (BT).Translocation of enteric flora occurs via defective mucosal barrier.BT is considered the key step in pathogenesis of SBP and cirrhotic patients.It is also the critical factor that is responsible for host immune response and secreation of inflammatory mediators that is responsible for hemodynamic changes in cirrhotics.Three most important mechanism of bacterial translocation include bacterial overgrowth,physical disruption of gut mucosal barrier and impaired host defence. Rifaximin by mechanism of gut decontamination may reduce translocation of intestinal bacteria into mesenteric lymph nodes then into ascitic fluid.Thus it may prove useful in preventing recurrence of SBP.There was no study till date that has compared efficacy of Norfloxacin and rifaximin to prevent development of SBP.This pilot study was done to compare the efficacy of rifaximin with norfloxacin in both primary and secondary prophylaxis of SBP in a prospective randomized open-label and non-inferiority trial

The study will be conducted in the Department of Hepatology, Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, New Delhi. As a part of this study history will be taken and clinical examination will be done. Subjects will be screened for diagnosis of NASH (Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis) cirrhosis. If subjects are found to have NASH (Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis) cirrhosis, they will be chosen to receive stool from healthy donor, which is voluntarily donated by a healthy donor related or unrelated to the subjects and the stool will be prepared using standard guidelines. The prepared sample of stool, about 50 ml will be instilled into proximal small intestine by way of a thin and soft tube inserted through nose. This administration of sample, 50 ml daily will occur once a month every month for 6 months. The liver function parameters will be assessed and thereafter at 1 month and 3 months & subjects will be clinically assessed for improvement or worsening.

The patients will be randomized into two groups Endoscopic Variceal Ligation with Non Selective Beta Blocker Placebo with Endoscopic Variceal Ligation

Detection of cholangiocellular and hepatocellular carcinomas can be challenging in both radiologic imaging and during surgical resection. Therefore, radioactive seed-guided resection of these tumors, analogously to breast cancer, could be an interesting approach. The investigators present two cases of cirrhotic patients where this method of tumor labelling was used.

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO) is a common and increasingly recognized disorder in cirrhosis (30% to 73%). One of the most important predisposing factors of SIBO is small bowel dysmotility. Multiple studies have shown that the presence of SIBO is strongly linked to the pathogenesis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy (MHE) also known as Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy (CHE). Consequently, altering and modulating the intestinal microbiota with ammonia-lowering agents and Rifaximin has been the target treatment strategy in CHE. The aim of this study is to determine the therapeutic effect of Rifaximin on patients with CHE and underlying SIBO while assessing the influence of Rifaximin on small bowel motility. In this prospective interventional study, 40 patients with liver cirrhosis will be screened for Covert Hepatic Encephalopathy (CHE) using neuro-psychometric tests. Patients diagnosed with CHE will undergo breath test (BT) for SIBO screening. Afterwards, wireless motility capsule (The SmartPill) will be performed in all patients with a positive BT. Thereafter, the cirrhotic patients diagnosed with CHE and SIBO will receive Rifaximin 550 mg PO twice daily for eight weeks. At the end of treatment, neuro-psychometric tests will be repeated to evaluate the therapeutic effect on CHE. In addition, BT and SmartPill will be repeated at the completion of the Rifaximin treatment period to assess the effect on small bowel motility. All collected clinical parameters at the end of the study will be compared to baseline values.

The investigators conducted a pilot study including 17 patients with liver cirrhosis showing that a moderate exercise programme during three months increased thigh circumference,exercise tolerance and quality of life without adverse effects. The present study aim to more accurately evaluate the effect of exercise on muscle mass, effort tolerance and inflammatory response in patients with cirrhosis. This study will include 30 patients with compensated liver cirrhosis that will be randomized into two groups: exercise group and control group. Evaluation of muscle mass, effort tolerance, inflammatory response and quality of life will be made at the beginning and at the end of the study.

Patients of cirrhosis with portal hypertension aged 18 to 75 years who have small esophageal varices with or without red color signs and have not bled previously will be enrolled. After baseline evaluation, the participants will be randomized to receive either Placebo or Carvedilol 12.5 mg BD. After randomization they will be followed up for one year. The primary endpoint of the study is the the proportions of patients who develop large varices (Gd 3 or Gd 4) at 1 year in each group. The secondary endpoint are survival,reduction in HVPG,change in CTP and MELD score& adverse events.

Early diagnosis of liver fibrosis is useful for the follow-up and treatment of chronic liver disease. At present, the unique validated method to evaluate the liver fibrosis in children, is the liver biopsy which is an invasive method. If the elastometry method is proved to be a good method to evaluate the fibrosis in children, a numerous liver biopsy could be avoided.

In this study Peg-Intron will be tested to see if it will give better results than Colchicine. At this time, there is currently no recommended maintenance treatment for patients who have failed to respond to Interferon/Rebetron/Peg Intron and have advanced fibrosis. The purpose of this study is to compare two treatments to slow down the progression of liver disease and to prevent liver failure and liver cancer. The treatment will not cure Hepatitis C, but is being evaluated to see if it can slow down disease progression.

The value of banding ligation plus beta blocker in the prophylaxis of first episodes of variceal bleeding has not yet been evaluated. This study was conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of banding ligation plus nadolol versus nadolol in the prophylaxis of first bleeding in cirrhotic patients with high-risk esophageal varices.