Different doses of valsartan in the treatment of portal hypertension in patients with hepatic cirrhosis

Objective To explore effects of different doses of valsartan on alleviation of portal hypertension in patients with cirrhosis.Methods 40 liver cirrhosis patients with portal hypertension were randomized to be either treated with valsartan(40mg/d) or with(80mg/d).The effectiveness of the medicine was evaluated by measuring diameter of portal vien(DPV),velocity of the blood flow in the portal vien(VPV),diameter of splenic vien(DSV) and velocity of the blood flood of splenic vein(VSV) with Doppler before and after 2-weeks' treatment.Results The diameters of portal and splenic veins were significantly decreased.whereas the velocities of the blood flow in portal and splenic veins were significantly increased following either low or high dose of valsartan treatment.However there was no statistically significant difference between low dose or high dose treatment.Conclusion Valsartan(40mg/d) is as effective as valsartan(80mg/d) in reducing portal pressure in patient with portal hypertension resulted from liver cirrhosis.