Flow Mediated Dilation in Cirrhosis: A Pilot Study in Different Stages of the Disease

Emerging concepts in the care of patients with cirrhosis and septic shock

Septic shock impacts approximately 6% of hospitalized patients with cirrhosis and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Although a number of landmark clinical trials have paved the way for incremental improvements in the diagnosis and management of septic shock in the general population, patients with cirrhosis have largely been excluded from these studies and critical knowledge gaps continue to impact the care of these individuals. In this review, we discuss nuances in the care of patients with cirrhosis and septic shock using a pathophysiology-based approach. We illustrate that septic shock may be challenging to diagnose in this population in the context of factors such as chronic hypotension, impaired lactate metabolism, and concomitant hepatic encephalopathy. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the application of routine interventions such as intravenous fluids, vasopressors, antibiotics, and steroids should be carefully considered among those with decompensated cirrhosis in light of hemodynamic, metabolic, hormonal, and immunologic disturbances. We propose that future research should include and characterize patients with cirrhosis in a systematic manner, and clinical practice guidelines may need to be refined accordingly.

Peripheral endothelial and microvascular damage in liver cirrhosis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE

This is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of studies using any available functional method to examine differences in peripheral endothelial function between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic individuals.

METHODS

Literature search involved PubMed, Web-of-Science and Scopus databases, as well as grey literature sources. We included studies in adult subjects evaluating endothelial function with any semi-invasive or non-invasive functional method in patients with and without liver cirrhosis.

RESULTS

From 3378 records initially retrieved, 15 studies with a total of 570 participants were included in the final quantitative meta-analysis. In 6 studies examining endothelial function with flow-mediated-dilatation no differences between patients with cirrhosis and controls were evident (WMD: 1.33, 95%CI [-2.87, 5.53], I² =97%, p<0.00001). Among studies assessing differences in endothelial-dependent or endothelial-independent vasodilation with venous-occlusion-plethysmography, there were no significant differences between the two groups. When pooling all studies together, regardless of the technique used, no significant difference in endothelial function between cirrhotic patients and controls was observed(SMD: 0.79, 95%CI[-0.04, 1.63], I2=94%, p<0.00001).

CONCLUSIONS

No differences in peripheral endothelial function assessed with semi-invasive or non-invasive functional methods exist between cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic subjects. The increasing co-existence of cardiovascular risk factors leading to impaired vascular reactivity in cirrhotic patients may partly explain these findings.