Portal Hypertension: the Desperate Search for the Placenta
Current Research in Translational Medicine 67 (2019) 56–61 Available online at ScienceDirect www.sciencedirect.com Original article Portal hypertension: The desperate search for the placenta a, b c,d c,d Maria Angeles Aller *, Natalia Arias , Javier Blanco-Rivero , Gloria Balfagón , a Jaime Arias a Department of Surgery. School of Medicine, Complutense University of Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain b Upper Third Floor, UCL Medical School, UCL Institute for Liver and Digestive Health, Royal Free Hospital, Rowland Hill Street, London NWÁ 2PF, UK c Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Autónoma University of Madrid, Spain d Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario La Paz (IdiPAZ), Madrid, Spain A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: We propose that the circulatory impairments produced, in both portal hypertension and liver cirrhosis, to Received 26 February 2018 a certain degree resemble those characterizing prenatal life in the fetus. In fact, the left-right circulatory Accepted 30 September 2018 syndrome is common in cirrhotic patients and in the fetus. Thus, in patients with portal hypertension and Available online 30 November 2018 chronic liver failure, the re-expression of a blood circulation comparable to fetal circulation is associated with the development of similar amniotic functions, i.e., ascites production and placenta functions, and Keywords: portal vascular enteropathy. Therefore, these re-expressed embryonic functions are extra-embryonic and Portal hypertension responsible for prenatal trophism and development. Portosystemic shunts Placenta © 2018 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. Hyperdynamic circulation Left-right shunts 1. Introduction esophagus and upper stomach, the splenorenal veins, the para- rectal veins with haemorrhoids and the paraumbilical veins, which Increased venous pressure in the splanchnic venous system can result in dilated veins in the anterior abdominal wall, thus making reach pathological levels and induce complications, which in turn up a “caput medusa” [1,2].
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