Assessment of Cardiac Performance in Cholestatic Patients versus non Cholestatic Hepatic Ones

Abstract

Understanding the core relationship between the liver and the heart is important for both hepatologists and cardiologists. Cholecardia is a term to describe the jaundiced heart describe a syndrome in which pathological levels of bile acids induce cardiomyopathy. Chronic liver diseases may affect cardiac functions in the absence of other heart disease. These effects are called cirrhotic cardiomyopathy and may aggravate the course during orthotropic liver transplantation (OLT) and most of these effects are reversed after OLT. Cirrhotic cardiomyopathy related heart failure is claimed to be the third leading cause of death after rejection and infection in the transplanted patients. To achieve this goal, instrumental assessments, such as electerocardiogram and echocardiography, particularly in combination, can be helpful due to the latent course of cirrhotic cardiomyopathy. The aim of this work is to assess cardiac performance in choletatic patients in comparison to non cholestatic hepatic ones . The cardiac performance is extended on three levels in the current study; the electrical, functional and structural levels.