High bp or portal hypertension?

Im confused...is high blood pressure the same as portal hypertension? Only my dads got high blood pressure and the hosp said it was way too high for the liver to cope with.his bp is 153/51

Thankyou

[AyrshireK]

Portal hypertension and ordinary hypertension (high blood pressure) are different things. Portal hypertension is purely the condition of having higher blood pressure in the portal vein / veinous system resulting from the build up of back pressure from blood unable to flow through the damaged liver. My hubby whist having portal hypertension actually had generally low blood pressure.

Katie

[Hidden in reply to AyrshireK]

Right.thankyou.that answers that.all the hosp said on sunday, was his blood pressure was way too high for the liver.hes got a decompensated liver.i tried googling it but got confused so thought here was much better.thankyou x

[Saintgeorge in reply to AyrshireK]

Do you know how portal hypertension is measured? I have been taking carvedilol since 2014, esophageal varices grade 2. Hep c cured 2016. Feel good and fit but don't overdo it. Thanks

[AyrshireK in reply to Saintgeorge]

Don't think they can put a blood pressure score on it like they can with ordinary high blood pressure. It's presence is monitored on your ultra sound scans, presence of varices and/or other PH symptoms.

Katie

[Hidden in reply to Saintgeorge]

When you have an ultrasound they can measure the flow through the portal vein and they can also measure whether the flow through the portal vein is in the correct direction.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Ah,hes just had all that done about 4 weeks ago.ct scan and ultrasound on whole abdomen area.they did blood flows etc too.amazing to see on the screen( not that i know whst theyre looking at!).think i need to check again what theyre on about.hes just had a load of polyps removed on sunday...got 8 more to remove in 6 weeks time.they were too big to do at the weekend so needs to go back.hes suffering with iron defficiency aneamia so theyre trying to find out why.all his blood results are still abnormal despite all the iron supps.

Urgh

Bex x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Sorry don't know anything about polyps. I have just discovered that I have very low ferritin levels due to my spleen. All my blood tests that would indicate anaemia were coming back normal, so maybe the spleen is an issue? Sorry to hear that things are not going well. Also, I was told that platelets below 150 can indicate possible portal hypertension. Best of luck going forward for your dad.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

The body is a minefield !

Hopefully your levels will improve real soon and get better.

Basically my dads got a decompensated liver and had aneamia for a long time, so now theyre looking for answers,as the iron supplements arent doing anything.everything about his blood is abnormal.all levels are extremely low.week in week out.and then they found these polyps.(dont know if that has anything to do with the aneamia?)

They've been looking for tumours and cancers,and bleeds with the ct scans,ultrasounds,and cameras in every orafice.but thats all theyve found so far.albeit a large number of them.

I came accross some info on the spleen,so am going to mention that at the hosp or gp next time as thats not been looked at i dont think?

Thanks for info

Best wishes to you also x

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

THey should have measured the spleen when they did the ultrasound. However, my liver became decompensated about 2 years ago and I had a bleed. My consultant told me it's where the damage on the liver is rather than how much. I don't have a lot of scarring according to my fibroscan, but it's where the damage has occurred that seems to have caused the problem. However, they can't tell me where the scarring is, because this inforamtion has come from research that is being carried out in Germany. I do hope they find an answer soon and that he can go back to being compensated. All the very best

Just as an aside, I had a second bout of being decompensated through 2 doses of food poisoning, which took a few months to get back to normal, so there could be any number of reasons for becoming decompensated I guess. I wish I could be of more help, but asking about the spleen won't do you any harm.