“…As verapamil effects in portal hypertension are better documented, and little is known about tetrandrine, we, therefore, undertook the present study on tetrandrine. Although verap amil has been shown in some reports to reduce portal pressure and/or improve hepat ic function in both portal hypertensive pa tients [23] and animals [13,14,24], another calcium antagonist, nifedipine, has been shown to deleteriously increase hepatic ve nous pressure in cirrhotic patients [25]. In our acute [9] and in the chronic (the present) study of tetrandrine, we observed that portal venous pressure, mean arterial pressure, and total peripheral resistance were reduced in portal hypertensive rats, in line with previous reports of verapamil effects [3,24], It awaits further study to clarify whether tetrandrine alone has any deleterious side effects on renal, hepatic, or metabolic functions.…”