The effects of statins in treatment of portal hypertension in cirrhotic patients and rats: a Meta-analysis

LI Yuting; TANG Shaohui; LONG Linjing; LI Chunfang; ZHAN Rui

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1671-6450.2017.09.018

Abstract：Objective To evaluate the effects of the statins in reducing portal hypertension (PHT) in patients or rats with cirrhosis.Methods Retrieval PubMed, Embase, Web of science, the Cochrane Library, Chinese CNKI, Wanfang database and VIP database (VIP) on clinical randomized controlled study and animal experiment of statins on liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension, selected studies were using Stata 12 statistical software to perform Meta-analysis.Results A total of ten randomized controlled trials (RCT) met the inclusion criteria, in which 3 trials were analyzed to compare the statins with the placebo in patients with cirrhosis (110 patients) and the other 7 trials were in rats (134 rats).The results of meta-analysis were as follow:(1)compared with placebo,the statins were associated with a greater reduction of hepatic vein pressure gradient(HVPG) inpatients with cirrhosis(WMD =1.308,95% CI 0.987~1.629 mmHg, P =0.000).(2)Subgroup analysis showed the effective rate of the statins to reduce HVPG in patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis was significantly greater than in patients with compensated cirrhosis (RR =3.953,95% CI 1.030-15.181, P=0.045).(3)The portal pressure(PP) of the rats in treatment group was lower than in control group(WMD =2.318,95% CI 1.060-3.576 mmHg, P=0.000).(4)There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of adverse events between the statins treatment group and the placebo group(RR =0.871,95% CI 0.194-3.905, P =0.856).Conclusion The statins are effective in reducing portal pressure in cirrhotic patients and rats with PHT, especially in the patients with decompensated liver cirrhosis, and there are fewer adverse reactions.Statins may become a new type drug to reduce portal pressure in patients with PHT.