Venous flow abnormalities cirrhotic patients with caudate lobe enlargement

ABSTRACT

The present study was carried out on 30 patients diagnosed as liver cirrhosis and 10 normal control subjects. Patients were subjected to thorough clinical evaluation, battery of laboratory investigations, upper GIT endoscopy and abdominal ultrasonography. Percutaneous needle liver biopsy was done in 13 patients and documented the presence of cirrhosis. Study of the main portal vein and inferior vena cava by the ultrasonic duplex and color-coded Doppler was done for both patients and normal control. Results showed that the transverse diameter of the caudate lobe of the liver was significantly enlarged in patients compared to the control group. Duplex assessment of the inferior vena cava showed that it was compromised in 16 out of the 20 patients having an enlarged caudate lobe. Esophageal varices were present in 87.5% and 53.8% of patients with [group A] and patients without [group B] inferior vena cava compromise, respectively. Moreover, there was a statistically significant difference between the two groups regarding the incidence of renal impairment [43.75% in group A and 15.2% in group B]. Ascites was present in 75% and 53% of cases in groups A and B respectively. The difference proved to be statistically significant. Results showed that there was no significant difference between both groups regarding the portal vein diameter and flow velocity