Abnormal vascular tone is responsible for many of the complications seen in cirrhosis making the identification of the pathophysiology of abnormal dilatation a major focus in hepatology research. The study of abnormal vascular tone is complicated by the multiple vascular beds involved (hepatic, splanchnic, peripheral, renal and pulmonary), the differences in the underlying cause of portal hyper...

Postprandial hyperemia is associated with a significant increase in portal pressure in cirrhosis, which may contribute to progressive dilation and rupture of gastroesophageal varices. In cirrhosis, an insufficient hepatic production of nitric oxide (NO) may impair the expected hepatic vasodilatory response to increased blood flow, further exaggerating the postprandial increase in portal pressur...

OBJECTIVE: To determine the precipitating factors and outcome of Hepatic encephalopathy in patients of cirrhosis of liver. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective Descriptive study PLACE AND DURATION: The study was conducted in the department of Medicine Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro / Hyderabad from July 2009 to December 2009. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Ninety patients of cirrhosis of...

procalcitonin (pct) is a prohormone that has been used as a marker for the diagnosis of bacterial infections. the aim of this study was to survey pct levels in patients with cirrhosis. sixty-four patients with hepatic cirrhosis and 32 healthy blood donors were enrolled in this study. serum pct levels was detected using immunoluminometric assay. the rate of positive pct was higher in patients wi...

AIM To investigate the correlation between hepatic osteodystrophy and osteoporosis in patients with liver cirrhosis. METHODS Bone mineral density of the patients (n = 55) and that of the control group (n = 30) were measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. All the women in the study were premenopausal. Deoxypyridinoline, pyridinoline and urinary Ca(2+) were measured as bone destruction ma...

from Post-mortem Record (Bland-Sutton Institute, No. 228/47). Nothing abnormal was found in the heart, great vessels, or lungs. Blood clots were present in the lumen of the cesophagus, and dilated tortuous veins in the submucosa, extending from the cardia to the level of the aortic arch. A circular perforation, 5 mm. in diameter, was found in a vessel 8 cm. from the cardia. There was no-free fl...

Long‑term and advanced cirrhosis is usually irreversible and often coincides with variceal hemorrhage or development of hepatocellular carcinoma; therefore, liver cirrhosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. The aim of the present study was to investigate the specific mechanism behind the formation of fibrosis or cirrhosis using rat models of hepatic fibrosis. The cirrhosis m...

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES To develop an optimal scanning protocol for multislice spiral CT perfusion (CTP) imaging to evaluate hemodynamic changes in liver cirrhosis with diethylnitrosamine- (DEN-) induced precancerous lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into the control group (n = 80) and the precancerous liver cirrhosis group (n = 40). The control group rece...

Hepatic encephalopathy is one of the major complications in decompensated liver cirrhosis. The current study was conducted to clarify the mechanisms of zinc deficiency in liver cirrhosis and its involvement in hepatic encephalopathy via ammonia metabolism. Ten patients each with compensated or decompensated liver cirrhosis and 11 healthy volunteers were enrolled in the study. Serum zinc levels ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS In massive hepatic necrosis, hepatic stem cells constitute a canal of Hering derived, cytokeratin 19 (CK19) positive 'ductular reaction' (DR). Whether DRs in cirrhosis are activated stem cells (so called 'buds') or biliary metaplasia of cholestatic, injured hepatocytes is still debated. We investigate derivation of intraseptal hepatocytes (ISHs) from DRs and from the biliary tre...