ALTA TIPS: A 5-year Longitudinal Observational Study of Patients Undergoing TIPS Placement

ALTA is a multicenter consortium focused on the management of portal hypertension. ALTA TIPS is a longitudinal observational study of patients who are undergoing transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement. ALTA will create a database that will provide clinical parameters and outcomes of patients undergoing TIPS as part of their standard of care in hopes of answering key clinical questions.

This is a 5-year prospective, longitudinal, observational study of all patients undergoing TIPS placement. The study will accrue patients until the goal of 1,000 subjects is reached. Subjects will be followed prospectively for up to a total of 5 years. Patients will be clinically managed by their local physicians per standard of care and no specific treatments or interventions will be dictated by their enrollment in this study. Patients will be consented to enroll in the study prior to TIPS placement or within 14 days after TIPS placement (such as in the event of emergent TIPS) and their pertinent clinical information will be then collected. Subjects may be consented electronically using REDCap eConsent or docusign. Pre-TIPS participants will be asked to complete a short set of questionnaires and one verbal assessment both pre-TIPS and post-TIPS during regularly scheduled visits with their treating hepatologist. Blood and rectal samples will be collected as optional procedures, and participation in these procedures will not affect participation in the study. Patients will be asked to consent to three different 5mL blood samples (total 15mL) at the time of TIPS from the peripheral, central, and portal venous circulation. A 5 ml peripheral sample will also be collected at months 1, 6, and 12 post-TIPS. The peripheral blood samples will occur either prior to TIPS (time 0) in the IR suite or at months 1, 6 and 12 post-TIPS. The central and portal venous blood sample will occur during the TIPS procedure in the IR suite. The total blood volume collection throughout the study will be 30mL. The rectal swab will be performed by the IR/ anesthesia team prior to the TIPS procedure in the IR suite. During the prospective post-TIPS period all medical records will be reviewed including clinical notes, laboratory values, radiographic results and medication changes and this data will be inputted into the database. Participants will be asked to also complete the same questionnaires regarding their quality of life and patient reported outcomes at prespecified timepoints post-TIPS, at a minimum 3 months and 12 months post-TIPS placement and then yearly thereafter. The hepatic encephalopathy assessments and AUDIT-C questionnaire will be conducted at month 1, 3, 6,12 and then yearly thereafter as part of their usual post-TIPS care.