Dose Prediction for Antihypertensive Medications in Cirrhotic Patients Using Simcyp Program: Applications in Clinical Practice

This was a prospective, randomized, parallel, open-label pilot clinical study conducted over three months on Egyptian cirrhotic patients with arterial hypertension and portal hypertension. Adult patients aged >18 years with confirmed liver cirrhosis, concomitant arterial hypertension, and portal hypertension without a history of variceal bleeding were eligible for inclusion. Patients with renal disorders or on dialysis, pregnancy, known hypersensitivity to the study medications, active malignancy within the previous two years, or recent use of drugs interacting with antihypertensive agents were excluded. Patients were stratified according to Child-Pugh (CP) classification into CP class A and CP class B and randomly allocated into four treatment groups to receive either nebivolol or carvedilol at doses corresponding to the closest commercially available strengths to Simcyp®-predicted doses. CP class A patients were assigned to Group A (nebivolol 5 mg once daily) or Group B (carvedilol 12.5 mg once daily), while CP class B patients were assigned to Group C (nebivolol 2.5 mg once daily) or Group D (carvedilol 6.25 mg once daily). Clinical evaluation included serial blood pressure measurements, comprising systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate (HR), which were assessed at baseline and after 2, 4, 8, and 12 weeks of treatment. Doppler ultrasonographical assessment was performed to evaluate portal and hepatic hemodynamics, including portal vein diameter, portal vein velocity, congestion index, hepatic artery resistive index, and modified vascular liver index. Routine laboratory investigations were conducted to assess efficacy and safety and included liver function tests (serum albumin, total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase [ALT], and aspartate aminotransferase [AST]), kidney function tests (serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen [BUN]), CBC and fasting blood glucose. Patients were followed monthly throughout the study period, with systematic documentation of adverse events. During the study, four patients from CP class A discontinued participation and were excluded from the final analysis.