VWF and portal hypertension: Several recent large-scale studies had found that Von Willebrand factor (vWF), a peripheral intrahepatic vascular endothelial dysfunction marker, and soluble CD163(sCD163), a Kupffer cell activation marker, were both associated with portal hypertension, its staging, Child-Pugh score, and prognosis in patients with cirrhosis (La Mura et al., 2011; Ferlitsch et al., 2012; Grønbaek et al., 2012; Waidmann et al., 2013).