Endoscopic Doppler ultrasound for measurement of azygos blood flow. Validation against thermodilution and assessment of pharmacological effects of terlipressin in portal hypertension

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Terlipressin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The aim of the study was to evaluate azygos blood flow measurements by endoscopic ultrasound.

Why It Was Studied

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a new modality allowing real-time flow measurements by means of the Doppler technique.

Who Took Part

The study group was 20 patients.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, middle-aged adults and older adults, both men and women.

Measurements of azygos blood flow by EUS and by the thermodilution technique were compared in 20 patients with portal hypertension.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

The patients were allocated by chance, so the Terlipressin group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the patients and researchers unaware of who received Terlipressin.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Terlipressin group a baseline to be compared against.

In the crossover set-up each of the patients took both Terlipressin and the comparison in turn, acting as their own control.

What Was Measured

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is a new modality allowing real-time flow measurements by means of the Doppler technique.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Azygos Vein, Blood Flow Velocity, Endosonography, Hypertension, Portal, Lypressin, Probability and Sensitivity and Specificity.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Terlipressin in 20 patients.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 7 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2001 (Scandinavian journal of gastroenterology), a journal based in England.

More context: the Terlipressin compound page, all human trials.