Portal hypertension, the most important complication with cirrhosis of the liver, is a serious disease. Sorafenib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor is validated in advanced hepatocellular carcinoma. Because angiogenesis is a pathological hallmark of portal hypertension, the goal of our study was to determine the effect of sorafenib on portal venous flow and portosystemic collateral circulation in pa...

We investigated the role of early portal hypotensive pharmacotherapy in preventing the development of portal-systemic shunting in a portal hypertensive model of chronic murine schistosomiasis induced by infecting C3H mice with 60 cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni. Propranolol was administered in drinking water to 20 animals for a period of 6 wk at a dose of 10 mg.kg-1d-1, starting at 5 wk of sch...

Terlipressin is a synthetic long-acting analog of vasopressin widely used to control variceal bleeding by lowering portal venous pressure. We report an unusual adverse reaction to terlipressin in a 78-year-old patient with esophageal variceal bleeding who developed skin necrosis soon after treatment initiation. Skin biopsy revealed embolia cutis medicamentosa.

Vasoconstrictor agents may induce a decrease in hepatic vascular volume passively, by decreasing distending pressure, or actively, by stimulating contractile elements of capacitance vessels. Hepatic venular resistance was estimated in anesthetized rabbits from hepatic venular pressure (P(mu hv); by servo-null micropipette), inferior vena cava pressure, and total hepatic blood flow (F(hv); by ul...

1. Circulating kinins were detected and continuously assayed during hypotension due to haemorrhage in dogs, using the blood-bathed organ technique and isolated strips of cat jejunum as the assay tissue. 2. In arterial blood kinin concentrations of 1-5 ng/ml were attained after a hypotension of 35-65 mmHg had been maintained for 10-190 min. When portal venous blood was simultaneously assayed kin...

While increased resistance to portal blood flow is a central feature of portal hypertension, the varied clinical presentations of this syndrome and their relation to the underlying divergent splanchnic hemodynamic patterns remain puzzling. Some patients present with massive ascites, repeated hemorrhage from ruptured esopha-geal varcies, and severe hypersplenism, whereas others with equivalent o...

To the editor: Hepatoportal sclerosis (HS) is an idiopathic noncirrhotic intrahepatic portal hypertension characterized by splenomegaly, hypersplenism and portal hypertension. Although it is considered uncommon in developed countries there is an increasing number of cases reported which could traduce a better knowledge of this disease and a higher level of suspicion. Our objective is to report ...

We determined the roles of liver and splanchnic vascular bed in anaphylactic hypotension in anesthetized rats and the effects of anaphylaxis on hepatic vascular resistances and liver weight in isolated perfused rat livers. In anesthetized rats sensitized with ovalbumin (1 mg), an intravenous injection of 0.6 mg ovalbumin caused not only a decrease in systemic arterial pressure from 120 +/- 9 to...

Portal venous gas is a radiographic finding with numerous causes. The most common etiologies include bowel ischemia or other intra-abdominal catastrophes. The finding of portal venous gas carries a high mortality rate. We report the first case of portal venous gas associated with anaphylactoid reaction to intravenous contrast dye in a middle-aged woman. This was likely secondary to anaphylactoi...