Features of Capillary Network of the Gastric Mucosa in Patients with Portal Hypertension

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the process of angiogenesis in the gastric mucosa in the development of portal hypertension in 73 patients with chronic diffuse liver diseases. Increase in the average diameter of the capillaries is most notable in the antrum of patients with chronic cryptogenic cirrhosis: this figure is almost two times higher than in patients with cirrhosis of different etiology. The most reliable detection rate of significant dilatation of the capillary network was observed in the antrum of patients with liver cirrhosis, associated with C virus, that causes the greatest risk of chronic blood loss in patients of this clinical group. On average, signs of dilatation in the antrum are less pronounced than in the fundic, but in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, this difference is almost imperceptible, and signs of proliferation were significantly more frequent in the antrum than in the fundic.

Keywords

• gastric mucosa
• portal hypertension
• portal hypertensive gastropathy