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Cirrhotic portal hypertension can lead to serious complications including esophageal variceal bleeding. Hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) and upper gastrointestinal endoscopy can be used to evaluate the severity of portal hypertension and predict the risk of bleeding. However, both methods are invasive, which limits their clinical practice. Therefore, noninvasive techniques for the evaluation of portal hypertension will have certain advantages in clinical practice. This article introduces the noninvasive methods for the measurement of spleen stiffness, including transient elastography, acoustic radiation force impulse, real-time tissue elastography, and magnetic resonance elastography, as well as the value of these methods in evaluation of portal hypertension and influencing factors. It is pointed out that the difference in the diagnostic efficiency of spleen stiffness measured by these methods in portal hypertension needs to be verified by further studies.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is one of the most common causes of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small, non-coding RNA, are involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes in human bodies. The mechanism by which miRNAs regulate HCV replication is described, and the effects of liver-specific microRNA-122 antagonists on hepatitis C antiviral therapy are discussed. Our study indicates that miRNAs play an important regulatory role in HCV expression. Targeting miRNAs may be a potential therapeutic approach for treating HCV infection, but further studies are still in need.