Atorvastatin calcium tablets on inflammatory factors, hemorheology and renal function damage indexes in patients with diabetic nephropathy

Objectives:

To investigate the effect of atorvastatin on inflammatory factors, hemorheology, and renal function damage in patients with diabetic nephropathy (DN).

Methods:

One hundred and six DN patients who were treated in our hospital between June 2018 and August 2019 were selected and randomly grouped into observation group and control group, 53 each group. Patients in the control group were given the conventional treatment; patients in the observation group were given atorvastatin treatment on the basis of the conventional treatment. They were treated for three months. The hemorheology indexes (whole blood viscosity, erythrocyte aggregation index, and fibrinogen (FIB)), renal function damage indexes (macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1, Secreted frizzled-related protein-5 (SFRP5), and mAIb/Cr) and inflammatory factor related indexes (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)) were compared between the two groups before and after three months of treatment.

Results:

After three months of treatment, the hemorheology indexes, renal function damage indexes, and inflammatory factors related indexes in the two groups changed. Compared with the control group, the whole blood viscosity, erythrocyte aggregation index, FIB, MIF, VACM-1, mAIb/Cr, CRP, IL-1, and TNF-α levels in the observation group significantly decreased, while the levels of SERP-5 significantly increased; the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05).

Conclusion:

Atorvastatin can effectively alleviate the renal function damage in patients with DN, reduce the level of serum inflammatory factors, and improve hemorheology, which has a good clinical application value for DN patients.

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts: midterm results in 28 patients

This paper reports the clinical and procedural results of 28 consecutive TIPS procedures in 25 males and three females with a mean age of 48 years. All patients had cirrhosis with portal hypertension and varices. Twenty-two patients had recurrent bleeding. Shunts were completed in 26 of 28 patients, and no death was associated with the procedure. Portal vein pressure was reduced from 3.98 +/- 0.24 KPa before shunting to 2.40 +/- 0.16 KPa after shunting. Doppler US revealed that the maximum blood flow velocity in the main portal vein increased from 14.0 +/- 4.5 cm/sec to 48.0 +/- 16.5 cm/sec. Shunt patency was determined by color Doppler US in 20 patients. Shunt stenosis was found in five patients and occlusion in one, and these findings were confirmed by angiography. Ascites disappeared in six of eight cases, and varices disappeared completely in 11 patients and abated greatly in 12 patients two months after TIPS. Rebleeding occurred in three cases (occlusion, 1; stenosis, 2) during a mean follow-up time of 6.5 months. One of these cases was successfully redilated. The initial results suggest that TIPS is a safe and effective method of portal decompression and that the key to portal vein puncture is to understand the three-dimensional relationship between the hepatic and portal veins.