Impaired oxygenation of gastric mucosa in portal hypertension. The basis for increased susceptibility to injury.

Increased susceptibility to mucosal damage is a prominent feature of portal hypertensive gastropathy. Since the portal hypertensive gastric mucosa has extensive microvascular changes, we postulated that the increased sensitivity to mucosal damage could have an ischemic basis. We measured distribution of gastric serosal and mucosal oxygenation in a group of portal hypertensive and sham-operated rats, and then studied the effects of intragastric aspirin. In the basal state, gastric mucosa of portal hypertensive rats had significantly reduced oxygenation compared to controls (24 +/- 5 vs 45 +/- 7 mm Hg PO2, P less than 0.02), while serosal oxygenation was similar between the two groups. Intragastric aspirin produced significantly greater mucosal damage to portal hypertensive rats and mucosal oxygenation was almost one third that of sham-operated controls. Systemic arterial pressures and oxygenation were similar between the two groups. We conclude that there is impairment of gastric mucosal oxygenation and increased mucosal damage by aspirin in portal hypertensive rats compared with sham-operated controls. These results support our hypothesis that the increased sensitivity of the portal hypertensive mucosa to damage is a consequence of impaired mucosal oxygenation.