Cirrhosis of the Liver

Pathological alterations in liver injury following congestive heart failure induced by volume overload in rats

“…Indeed, the cytoplasmic organelles were no longer distinguishable in many hepatocytes of rats with congestive heart failure with obvious degenerated fragmented rough endoplasmic reticulum, shrunken mitochondria and heavy cytoplasm vacuolization. These findings are in agreement with a previous study using light microscopy which investigated the pathological changes in the liver obtained from patients with congestive heart failure [ 28 ]. The authors found in severe cases that liver cells showed a variety of degenerative changes including apoptosis and necrosis processes [ 28 ].…”

“…These findings are in agreement with a previous study using light microscopy which investigated the pathological changes in the liver obtained from patients with congestive heart failure [ 28 ]. The authors found in severe cases that liver cells showed a variety of degenerative changes including apoptosis and necrosis processes [ 28 ]. Also, these findings are consistent with the recent investigation by others [ 35 , 3 ] which revealed a sinusoidal dilation and congestion with progressive fibrosis in liver biopsy from patients with heart failure.…”

“…In previous studies, the degree of heart and lung hypertrophy was directly correlated with hemodynamic changes of congestion including an increase in the left and right ventricular filling pressure as well as a significant reduction of left ventricular ejection fraction [ 16 , 27 ]. Heart performance and liver function are closely interconnected and a synergistic relationship exists between these organs [ 3 , 28 ]. Dysfunction of one organ often leads to a deterioration of function of the other [ 29 ].…”

“…In addition, the hemodynamic conditions may not be sufficient to achieve an adequate circulation of the liver, because inflow into the liver is limited by outflow pressure [ 30 ]. Therefore, congestive heart failure prevents the heart's ability to deliver the appropriate amount of oxygen to a rate proportionate to the demands of the metabolizing tissues that may result in damage to organs such as the liver [ 28 , 31 – 34 ]. In a recent study, elevated serum levels of the peripheral cell death markers M65 and M30 gave first indirect evidence of hepatic apoptotic cell death in patients with liver injury following heart failure [ 1 ].…”