View clinical trials related to Liver Cirrhosis.
Filter by:The purpose of the study is to evaluate agitated saline versus polygeline for detection of intrapulmonary vasodilatation in patients with cirrhosis.
The study will be conducted in two phases. Phase A will evaluate the contribution of bacterial overgrowth and colonic inertia to development of Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE)in 50 ambulatory subjects with HE and hepatitis C cirrhosis. This phase will include a Screening and Evaluation Visit. Phase B will evaluate the effect of rifaximin on bacterial outgrowth and severity of HE in 20 of the subjects enrolled in Phase A who have a somewhat greater degree of encephalopathy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the following: 1. the relationship between bacterial overgrowth and the presence and severity of HE in patients with hepatitis C cirrhosis; 2. the effectiveness and tolerability of rifaximin relative to placebo in treatment of HE associated with hepatitis C cirrhosis; 3. the relationship between bacterial overgrowth and the presence and severity of HE before and after rifaximin treatment.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a chronic liver disease primarily affecting middle age women. It is characterized by immune-mediated damage to cells lining the tiny bile ducts within the liver. Although the underlying cause of PBC is likely to be multifactorial, the epidemiologic/population data indicate a very important role for genetic predisposition, meaning that the disease seems to run in families. Susceptibility genes for PBC have not been identified possibly due to limitations such as small sample size in prior studies. The primary objective of this study is to identify these genes. This study involves obtaining clinical and demographic data as well as collecting DNA samples from patients and their parents, and siblings to screen for a select set of candidate genes as well as the full genome for variants associated with PBC.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether losartan, an angiotensin II blocker prevents the sodium retention in patients with liver cirrhosis and by that reduces the fluid retention. Moreover is the purpose to asses whether losartan is antifibrotic.
This study looks at the iontophoresis of urotensin II in chronic liver disease patients.
The purpose of this research is to study body materials like blood proteins as well as white blood cell and liver cellular RNA in individuals with liver diseases such as chronic viral hepatitis with or without hepatoma and autoimmune liver disease. Presently it is not understood how infection with chronic viral hepatitis or autoimmune liver disease damages the liver. This research study enroll patients with either chronic viral hepatitis with or without hepatoma or autoimmune liver disease. The purpose of this study is to find the genes that are expressed in both the circulating white blood cells and the liver of patients with varying degrees of liver damage of different causes. Genes are biological messengers some of which determine how the body responds to injury. We anticipate that results from Differential Gene Expression (DGE) analysis will allow us to make predictions about likelihood of disease progression and/or response to treatment. In addition we will test the blood for markers of injury. The blood collected will be prepared differently from the liver tissue. We will use technologies to express pure proteins and then we will investigate the functions of these proteins. Nearly all drugs act on proteins, not genes, so understanding proteins is the key to really effective new medicines. Similarly the first signs of ill health appear in changes to the body’s blood proteins, making them the most sensitive diagnostic indicators. The studies we plan are called proteomics. We will later correlate the patterns of gene expression in both circulating white blood cells and the liver tissue with clinical outcome and patterns of proteins measured in blood and we hope to gain an understanding of how the disease process occurs, which may in turn help us to make more precise diagnoses and develop new forms of treatment. These techniques that we use are still experimental and so we do not yet know if they will be helpful in monitoring changes which may help us to predict the potential severity of your liver disease or even if they can be used to indicate who will best respond to treatment.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a disease of the liver, which predominantly affects women. It causes slowly progressive liver disease, which eventually causes liver failure, requiring a liver transplant. Several different studies of large patient cohorts indicate that the cause of this disease is likely due to a combination of factors including genetic and environmental. PBC is associated with several other "autoimmune diseases" - recently a gene has been identified to be abnormal in individuals with another autoimmune liver disease, namely rheumatoid arthritis. This gene usually tells the body when to switch off an immune response. This study plans to identify whether individuals diagnosed with PBC have a similar abnormality in this gene called protein Tyrosine Phosphatase.
This study is to determine whether a compound, nitric oxide, made within the body, is the factor responsible for the changes in blood pressure and renal (kidney) functions that may occur during the course of cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis (liver scarring which causes poor liver function) will be eligible to participate. A group of healthy subjects will also be studied to compare the effects of the treatment to patients with cirrhosis and to confirm safety. A total number of 30 patients with cirrhosis and 10 healthy subjects will be enrolled in the study.