Background and aims: To evaluate whether the hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) differs between cirrhotic patients with severe portal hypertensive gastropathy (PHG) and those with mild or absent PHG.
Methods: 59 cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension underwent hepatic vein catheterisation. 44 patients (76%) had PHG (16 mild and 28 severe).
Setting: tertiary care setting (Liver Unit, Internal Medicine).
Results: HVPG values did not differ between the patients without PHG (21.6 +/- 10.1 mmHg) and those with PHG (18.6 +/- 9.1 mmHg), nor between those with mild (19.3 +/- 4.3 mmHg) or severe PHG (17.7 +/- 4.6 mmHg; p = 0.26). The overall prevalence of PHG and the proportion of patients with severe PHG did not differ regarding the Child Pugh classification. The etiology of the cirrhosis did not influence the HVPG. No correlations were found between HVPG values and Child Pugh score, age, platelet count, prothrombin time, bilirubin levels and ALT values. The HVPG did not differ between patients with small, medium or large esophageal varices, nor between subjects with or without gastric varices.
Conclusions: Our data show that PHG does not correlate with the degree of portal pressure, and that the prevalence and the severity of this condition are not influenced by the severity of underlying liver disease or by the size of varices.