Cirrhotic Cardiomyopathy Based on Point-of-care Echocardiography, Biomarkers and Histology

M mode, cross sectional and pulsed wave Doppler Echocardiographic examinations will be performed using a with a 2.5 MHz wide angle phased array transducer. Patients will be laid in left lateral position and examined in standard parasternal long and short axis and apical views. Short axis recordings will be performed at the level of the papillary muscles. M mode tracings will be recorded at the level of the papillary muscles and the aortic valves, with 2 -D guidance. LV wall thickness and cavity diameters will be measured by M mode, through the largest diameter of the ventricle, if possible, both in diastole and systole. Using the cross-sectional images as a guide, the M mode tracing of the left ventricle will obtained to calculate measurements according to the recommendations of American Society of Echocardiography.

In patients who do not survive, we will take a trucut core biopsy from the ventricular myocardium, using ultrasound guidance. Cardiac tissue slices preserve the heterogeneous structure and multicellularity of the myocardium and allow its functional characterization. However, in this protocol, only those patients who consent to autopsy or those who consent to most mortem biopsy will be sampled for cardiac histology in CCM. Thus samples for histology and immunohistopathology will be available in only a few patients. For the immunohistochemistry study, the sections will be collected on the poly-L-lysine covered slides and dried in a thermostat, at 37°C, for 24 hours, for increasing the adherence of the biological material to the histological slide.