In the approximately 35% to 40% of patients with portal hypertension who fail to respond well to carvedilol, adding simvastatin will rescue a substantial proportion by bringing their pressure under control, researchers have found.
In a series of 102 patients, the response to carvedilol alone was about 60%, but the combination of simvastatin and carvedilol in patients who did not achieve a hepatic venous pressure gradient of less than 12 mm Hg after dose optimization led to an overall response