The effect of endoscopic injection sclerotherapy on portal blood flow and liver function.
OBJECTIVE
It is still controversial whether endoscopic injection sclerotherapy can affect portal blood flow and liver function. To clarify this issue, we investigated the change in portal blood flow velocity and the relationship between liver function and portal blood flow after sclerotherapy.


METHODS
Ten liver cirrhosis patients with F2 esophageal varices were enrolled in this study. All patients underwent sclerotherapy until all varices were eradicated. Portal blood flow velocity was measured using Doppler ultrasonography. The changes in laboratory parameters and the portal flow velocity were analyzed in each patient.


RESULTS
Total mean portal blood flow velocity was changed from 7.5 +/- 5.3 cm/s to 10.3 +/- 3.5 cm/s by sclerotherapy. Six of ten cases had increase in portal blood flow velocity. Among them, 5 cases demonstrated improvement in serum albumin and total cholesterol level 3 months after sclerotherapy.


CONCLUSIONS
Prophylactic endoscopic injection sclerotherapy among patients with early liver cirrhosis can improve liver function by increasing the portal blood flow.
Sugimoto
Kazushi
K
First Department of Internal Medicine, Mie University School of Medicine, 2-174, Edobashi, Tsu, Mie, Japan.
Shiraki
Katsuya
K
Murata
Kazumoto
K
Ito
Takeshi
T
Ohmori
Shigeru
S
Sakai
Takahisa
T
Yamanaka
Takenari
T
Takase
Koujiro
K
Nakano
Takeshi
T
Nakanishi
Shigeo
S
D000368:Aged; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D004932:Esophageal and Gastric Varices / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011168:Portal System / Q000502:physiology*; D015911:Sclerotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018608:Ultrasonography, Doppler