[Pharmacotherapy of portal hypertension and its complications: analysis of efficacy of preparations for clinical practice and discussion of promising methods of treatment].

Bleeding from oesophageal varicose veins is the terminal stage of a sequence of complications of liver cirrhosis caused by progressive fibrosis, circulation blockade, and development of portal hypertension syndrome followed by collateral shunt. It leads to progressive vein dilation and their rupture. The main issue of today is to prevent the development of successive stages of portal hypertension, to search for therapeutic and surgical methods for marked reduction of pressure in the portal system, and to prevent the risk of hemorrhage from varicose veins.

[The use of hepatoprotector LiverPro in combined therapy of chronic viral hepatitis C].

We analysed clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, nature and frequency of side effects, and positive virologic response rate in 20 patients with chronic viral hepatitis C (HCV) given combined antiviral therapy with PEG-Intron, ribavirin, and LiverPro hepatoprotector (Santegra, USA, two capsules twice daily) during 3 months. The results were compared with those obtained in the control group of HCV patients receiving the same treatment excepting the hepatoprotector. Clinical manifestations of HCV in the former group disappeared 7-10 days earlier than in control.

[The peculiarities of the clinical picture and the effectiveness of antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis related to alcohol consumption plus hepatitis C virus effect].

The purpose of this study was to describe the features of chronic hepatitis when the damaging action of alcohol was combined with that of hepatitis C virus, and to investigate the effectiveness of combined antiviral therapy in this category of patients. The study showed that patients with chronic hepatitis of combined ethiology (alcohol plus HCV) had higher biochemical and histological activity of the disease, as well as certain histological features. The effectiveness of combined antiviral therapy was comparable in both alcohol consumers and non-consumers with hepatitis C, which makes it possible to consider the former category as candidates for antiviral treatment under the condition that they follow doctor's recommendations and abstain from alcohol consumption.