Liver cirrhosis is a worldwide disease with an incidence of 5 - 10% and represents a major health problem everywhere. Prognosis depends on the degree of liver damage and etiology of cirrhosis. Treatment is complex and often very expensive. Due to this, the attempts of researchers are focused on finding the most optimal therapeutic modalities, which depend mostly on the stage of cirrhosis.
A research article to be published on November 21 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses non-invasive assessment of the stages of cirrhosis according to concentration of plasma serotonin. The research team, led by Dr. Dorde Æulafiæ, included in their study 30 patients with liver cirrhosis and 30 healthy controls, in whom plasma serotonin levels were determined.
The serotonergic system plays a critical role in a wide variety of physiological and behavioral processes. In the circulation, serotonin synthesized by the intestinal cells is actively incorporated and stored into platelets. Altered concentrations of circulating serotonin have been implicated in several pathologic conditions, including increased blood pressure, increased pulmonary pressure, liver cirrhosis and psychiatric disorders.
Plasma serotonin levels are significantly higher in patients with cirrhosis than in the controls and represent the degree of liver insufficiency.
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Reference: Ðorðe M Æulafiæ, Duško S Mirkoviæ, Miodrag D Vukèeviæ, Jelena S Rudiæ. Plasma and platelet serotonin levels in patients with liver cirrhosis. World J Gastroenterol 2007; 13(43): 5750-5753 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/13/5750.asp
Correspondence to: Ðorde M Culafiæ, Assistant Professor, Institute of Digestive Diseases, Clinical Center of Serbia, Koste Todorovica 6 street, Belgrade 11000, Serbia. dculafic@eunet.yu Telephone: +387-11-2629811 Fax: + 387-11-2629811
About World Journal of Gastroenterology World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection for providing a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by The WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.
About The WJG Press The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.
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World Journal of Gastroenterology