Journal of hepatology
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Journal of hepatology · Feb 2017
Observational StudyEffect of ventriculo-arterial coupling on transplant outcomes in cirrhotics: Analysis of pressure-volume curve relations.
Ventriculo-arterial coupling (VAC) reflects the interaction between ventricular performance and effective arterial load. Current criteria for cirrhotic cardiomyopathy focus only on cardiac function without addressing the effect of hyperdynamic, low-resistance circulation. We investigated alterations in VAC in cirrhotic patients and their associations with post-liver transplant all-cause mortality. ⋯ In cirrhotic patients, cardiac dysfunction is latent and only manifests under stressful conditions because of arterial vasodilation. In this study, based on the pressure-volume curve of cardiac function, we investigated characteristics of the ventricular-arterial coupling in cirrhotic patients and further found that disparities in the ventriculo-arterial relationship are associated with graft failure and all-cause mortality after liver transplantation.