![]() | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract There are many factors that can lead to liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension, which include viral hepatitis (Abd-Elsalam et al., 2018), alcohol abuse, sclerosing cholangitis, and common inborn errors of metabolism that include Wilson disease, hemochromatosis, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (Zhou et al., 2003). Viral hepatitis accounts for the majority of chronic liver diseases (CLDs) worldwide, CLD can progress to significant liver fibrosis or cirrhosis (Lavanchy et al., 2009). HCV is classified into seven genotypes and different subtypes, among which genotypes 1, 2 and 3 are more predominant than the others (Ray et al., 2018). HCV infection is considered to be one of the major risk factors for liver-related pathogenesis. Approximately 85% of infected individuals develop chronic infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that more than 71 million people are chronically infected with HCV globally, and approximately 0.39 million infected people died due to HCV-related liver complications annually (Ekpanyapong et al., 2019). Fibrosis is a consequence of wound-healing response, and is a continuous process of regeneration of damaged tissues by maintaining a balance between fibrogenesis and fibrolysis (Tsuchida et al., 2017). Cirrhosis is usually the final histological pathway whatever the underlying cause of liver diseases resulting in complications, such as portal hypertension, ascites, or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) (Tsochatzis et al., 2014). It has been demonstrated that AVP concentrations increase greatly with worsening of liver function, and this important marker may additionally thus have a prognostic function. However, its measurement is not easy to carry out and now not routinely available. Copeptin, the pre-pro-AVP C-terminal fragment, is launched into the serum in equimolar quantities as AVP. For that reason, copeptin concentrations closely mirror the production of AVP, either in healthy subjects or in stressful situations inclusive of sepsis. The principal interest of copeptin is its stability in the serum, which is much more stable than AVP, thereby making it easier and more practical to measure. Moreover, its concentration increases much more than cortisol in the event of stress. Solà and Kerbert and colleagues have shown in a series of 361 patients that copeptin is markedly increased in patients with cirrhosis who develop complications, compared to those patients who do not develop complications. Moreover, copeptin correlates with prognosis. According to these data we studied serum level of copeptin in 60 HCV- patients classified in to two group aaccording to fibroscan score as discussed before. concluded for significant increase of serum copeptin in liver cirrhosis group than other fibrosis groups, Also concluded for Copeptin concentrations increase along with the severity of liver disease as well as some of its complication. |