Liver and Biliary Tract Pathology Flashcards
what is cirrhosis of the liver?
scarring of the liver after long term damage
what are the 4 main consequences of liver cirrhosis?
reduced metabolic capacity
portal hypertension
ascites
shunting of blood by-passing liver
why in liver cirrhosis does ascites occur mainly in the abdomen?
because of the low albumin and very higher pressure from portal system
(large hydrostatic pressure of capillaries [Pc], low osmatic drive of capillaries [pieC])
what are the 4 main causes of liver damage?
obesity/diabetes
alcohol
viruses
drugs
what happens to the size of the liver in cirrhosis?
becomes small shrunken and hard
what is ‘caput medusae’?
when the umbilical vein (ligamentum hepes) becomes back in use because of portal hypertension
what is the function of up-regulating of the umbilical vein?
to help with the diversion of blood from portal system to systemic system (shunting) in order to combat the high portal pressure
what happens to highly metabolised drugs when there is portal-systemic shunting?
increased plasma levels
why is there increased plasma levels of some drugs due to portal-systemic shunting?
due to lack of first pass metabolism
what is meant by saturable kinetics of drugs?
metabolism increases until a certain point where it then remains at a constant rate- because liver has become saturated
why in liver cirrhosis is the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system up regulated?
because low albumin causes low plasma volume which activates renin production from the kidneys
what can this up-regulation of the RAAS system cause in a patient with a cirrhotic liver?
secondary aldosteronism (liver is unable to break the aldosterone down anymore)
why do both endothelin and oestrogen concentrations of the plasma increase in patients with cirrhotic livers?
because the liver become unable to metabolise endothelin and oestrogen leading to their accumulation
what does the increased oestrogen due to liver cirrhosis cause to males?
gynaecomastia
feminisation of men and loss of secondary sexual characteristics
what are the 3 main consequences of cirrhotic liver in respect to the kidneys?
water retention
sodium retention
potassium loss
what is produced in response to hormone vasoconstrictors (such as endothelin, aldosterone, angiotensin II) that acts to maintain kidney function?
renal vasodilator prostaglandins
why should NSAIDs be avoided if possible in patients in dehydrated states (such as alcoholism/cirrhotic livers)?
NSAIDs inhibit vasodilator prostaglandins so will worsen kidney impairment due to vasoconstriction
(due to the high concentration of vasoconstrictors produced because of the dehydration)
if you are prescribing a NSAID for a patient with cirrhotic liver what must be co-prescibred?
a proton pump inhibitor
what 2 phases occur in drug metabolism in the liver?
phase 1: biotransformation
phase 2: conjugation
what drug metabolism phase is affected early in liver disease and what phase is affected late in liver disease?
phase 1 affected early
phase 2 affected late
what is the highly reactive intermediate that knackers your liver and is formed from the metabolism of paracetamol?
N-acetyl-p-benzoquinonimine
why are healthy patients unaffected by n-acetyl-p-benzoquinonimine?
(at advised doses of paracetmol)
n-acetyl-p-benzoquinonimine is removed quikly with glutathione
what happens if the glutathione runs out and herefore not all the n-acetyl-p-benzoquinomine can be removed?
paracetamol overdose
-can lead to fulminant hepatitis
why does being drunk reduce risk of overdosing when taking too many paracetamol tablets?
alcohol has used up all the enzyme paracetamol needs for metabolism, so paracetamol isn’t metabolised as quickly and acetyl-p-benzoquinomine is formed at a much slower rate