Evaluation Of The Portal Pressure By Doppler Ultrasound In Cirrhotic Patients Before And After Simvastatin

Evaluation Of The Portal Pressure By Doppler Ultrasound In Cirrhotic Patients Before And After Simvastatin

Portal hypertension is not a disease in itself. Rather, it is an indication of an illness, caused mostly by chronic lesions of the liver because of distinct causes, such as viral infection, chronic alcoholism, or metabolic disorders. Other reasons include splanchnic vascular diseases (for example, obstruction of the portal or the hepatic veins). Portal hypertension is defined as a pressure in the portal vein exceeding the vena cava pressure by more than 5 mm Hg.

Indeed, use of simvastatin might attenuate liver fibrosis in patients with chronic C infection, it may also reduce hepatic vascular resistance and portal pressure by improving liver generation of nitric oxide and hepatic endothelial dysfunction in patients with cirrhosis, so it could be an effective therapy for portal hypertension. It might even improve survival of patients with cirrhosis after variceal bleeding.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Positive diagnosis of cirrhosis by US (coarse echogenic pattern, bulky caudate lobe, attenuated hepatic veins)
• Clinical manifestations of portal hypertension (as esophageal varices ,splenomegaly, ascites and encephalopathy grade I-II)

Exclusion Criteria:

• Pregnancy
• Hepatic encephalopathy grade III-IV
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Treatment with statins in the previous 3 months
• Hypersensitivity to statins
• Previous surgical shunt or TIPS
• Treatment with calcium channel blockers