Korean J Med.
2008 Feb;74(2):139-145.
Non-invasive Doppler ultrasonography for assessment of the portal hypertension of liver cirrhosis: A prospective study
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea. baiksk@yonsei.ac.kr
Abstract
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BACKGROUND/AIMS: Portal hypertension occurs as a consequence of liver cirrhosis and is responsible for serious complications such as variceal bleeding, ascites and hepatic encephalopathy. The hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) is the gold standard for assessment of portal hypertension. However, use of the HVPG is limited by being an invasive test. This prospective study evaluated whether the parameters identified by the non-invasive Doppler ultrasonography reflect the HVPG and could potentially be used for the assessment of the severity of portal hypertension in patients with liver cirrhosis.
METHODS
HVPG and Doppler ultrasonographic parameters, including the damping index (DI) of the hepatic vein waveform, the portal venous velocity and flow, the splenic venous velocity and flow, the pulsatility and the resistive index of the hepatic, splenic and renal arteries were measured in 114 patients with liver cirrhosis and compared.
RESULTS
The DI of the Doppler hepatic vein waveform was significantly correlated with the grade of the HVPG, i.e. with a higher HVPG, an increase in the DI was observed (p<0.01). The other Doppler parameters did not correlate with the HVPG grade.
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study showed that the DI measurements of the hepatic vein waveform by Doppler ultrasonography might provide a noninvasive assessment of the severity of portal hypertension.
