Probiotics for Liver Cirrhosis With Portal Hypertension

• Status: Completed
• Trial end date: 2013-08-01
• Target enrollment: 0
• Participant gender: All

Summary

Recent studies indicate that probiotics can stimulate intestinal immunity and tighten the junctions of epithelial cells. By these ways, probiotics can reduce bacterial translocation; hence, they can ameliorate systemic inflammatory status. Because cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension often suffer from infections from intestinal flora, the investigators speculate that probiotics will be beneficial to those patients.

• Phase: N/A
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers?: No

Details

• Lead Sponsor: Po-Lin Chen, MD
• Collaborators: Grape King Bio Ltd.; GRAPE KING INC TAIWAN

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Patients with history of complications related to liver cirrhosis, including hepatic encephalopathy, variceal bleeding, and spontaneous bacterial peritonitis

2. Patients with evidences of portal hypertension, such as hepatosplenomegaly, thrombocytopenia (< 100,000/ml)

Exclusion Criteria:

1. Active infection

2. Dialysis patients, myocardial infarction, life-threatening cardiac arrythmia and stroke

3. Hepatocellular carcinoma with life expectancy < 6 months

4. Portal vein thrombosis

5. in hepatic encephalopathy or liver function ALT > 3 x UNL, T-bilirubin > 4.0 mg/dL

6. GI tract bleeding in recent 1 weeks

7. Drug abuser

8. No informed consent