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.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
40
Simvastatin 20 mg/day for two weeks (increased to 40 mg/day at day 15) for another two weeks plus the routine treatment
Sherief Abd-Elsalam
Tanta, Egypt
Number of Patients with Reduced Portal Pressure After Intervention
the number of Patients with Reduced Portal Pressure After Intervention
Time frame: 6 Months
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