ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Panminerva Medica 1998 September;40(3):196-8

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Does endothelin-1 play a role in the renal function of cirrhotic patients?

Bruno C. M., D’Amico R., Ierna D., Neri S.

From the Institute of Internal and Emergency Medicine University of Catania, Catania, Italy

Meth­ods. We inves­ti­gat­ed plas­ma and uri­nary endo­the­lin-1 lev­els in ­eleven cir­rhot­ic ­patients and ten ­healthy con­trol sub­jects, to eval­u­ate wheth­er endo­the­lin is ­involved in ­renal func­tion­al alter­a­tions of liv­er cir­rho­sis.
­Results. No sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence in plas­ma ET-1 lev­els was ­observed ­between the two ­groups (p>0.05) but uri­nary ET-1 excre­tion was sig­nif­i­cant­ly high­er in cir­rhot­ics ­than in con­trols (p<0.001). Crea­ti­nine clear­ance (­mean 56±7.6 ml/min) ­showed an ­inverse cor­re­la­tion ­with plas­ma ET-1 lev­els (p<0.05) in cir­rhot­ics.
Con­clu­sions. We ­believe ­this may be ­caused by ­enhanced ­local ET-1 activ­ity ­linked to an up-reg­u­la­tion of its spe­cif­ic recep­tors and/or ­increased ­renal syn­the­sis, result­ing in aug­ment­ed uri­nary excre­tion.