Letters To The Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. May 21, 2016; 22(19): 4786-4788
Published online May 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i19.4786
von Willebrand factor antigen as a therapeutic target of portal hypertension in cirrhosis
Georgios N Kalambokis, Gerasimos Baltayiannis, Dimitrios Christodoulou
Georgios N Kalambokis, 1st Division of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Gerasimos Baltayiannis, Dimitrios Christodoulou, Division of Gastroenterology, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece
Author contributions: Kalambokis GN and Baltayiannis G wrote this letter; Christodoulou D revised the letter.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Georgios N Kalambokis, MD, Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, 1st Division of Internal Medicine, Medical School, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece. gkalambo@cc.uoi.gr
Telephone: +30-2651-099735 Fax: +30-2651-007883
Received: January 15, 2016
Peer-review started: January 18, 2016
First decision: January 28, 2016
Revised: February 15, 2016
Accepted: March 1, 2016
Article in press: March 1, 2016
Published online: May 21, 2016
Core Tip

Core tip: The purpose of this letter to the Editor is to comment on the potential contribution of increased intrahepatic levels of von Willebrand factor as an additional mechanism that could be related to increased portal pressure in patients with cirrhosis and propose drugs which could decrease portal pressure on the basis of von Willebrand factor’s production or effects.