Elastography in the diagnosis of portal hypertension in patients with liver cirrhosis

Abstract

Aim. To establish the diagnostic accuracy of liver and spleen density (LD and SD) measurements in patients with compensated alcoholic liver cirrhosis (LC) in the diagnosis of portal hypertension. Subjects and methods. The investigation enrolled 83 patients with compensated alcoholic and viral (hepatitis C virus) LC. All the patients underwent LD and SD determinations, abdominal ultrasonography, and endoscopy to detect esophageal varices (EV), as well as examination of blood indices. Results. In viral LC, there were substantial LD differences in patients with and without EV. The patients with EV were ascertained to have higher LD [27.9 (21—45) kPa] than those without EV [19.5 (16—26.2) kPa]. SD was also significantly higher than that in the EV group than in the non-EV group (p

Keywords

• portal hypertension
• elastography
• liver cirrhosis
• noninvasive diagnosis