Abstract
To elucidate the mechanism of their reducing portal pressure, liver tissue blood flow, portal blood flow, hepatic arterial blood flow, heart rate and mean arterial pressure were measured on 50 patients with chronic liver disease before and after infusion of propranolol (10mg) and nitroglycerin (0.5mg).
After infusion of propranolol, liver tissue blood flow decreased by 28.5±10.3% (p<0.001), portal blood flow decreased by 26.6±10.9% (p<0.001), hepatic arterial blood flow decreased 16.7±10.5% (p<0.01), heart rate decreased by 18.6±3.4% (p<0.001) and mean arterial pressure decreased by 4.9±5.9% (p<0.001).
After infusion of nitroglycerin, liver tissue blod flow, portal blood flow and hepatic blood flow were not changed significantly, but heart rate increased by 13.2±14.1% (p<0.01) and mean arterial pressure decreased by 14.5±5.9% (p±0.001).
From these results, it seems that propranolol reduced portal venous pressure by decreasing the portal blood flow and that nitroglycerin reduces portal venous pressure by decreasing the resistance of portal-hepatic bed. Then, it was suggested that nitroglycerin might be useful for reducing portal venous pressure because of keeping the hepatic inflow.
