Volume 3 No. 1, January 2008

Color Doppler Sonography, In Acute Viral Hepatitis In Children

Hanaa A El-Araby1 , Enas Korayem1 & Naglaa Dabees2

Pediatrics & Radiology Departments, National Liver Institute, Menoufiya University1 & Radiology department, Tanta Univrsity Hospital2.
Tanta Med. Sc. J 2008; 3(2):55-65
Article type: Original article

 

Aim: The aim was to study the pattern of hemodynamic changes in both portal vein (PV) and hepatic artery (HA) through the different stages of acute viral hepatitis in children and to determine any sonographic correlation with the prognosis. Patients & Methods: Color Doppler US were performed on 50 patients with acute viral hepatitis (AVH) for four consecutive weeks and compared the results with those obtained on 20 normal controls. Results: The portal vein diameter and velocity showed no significant changes neither during different stages of acute hepatitis nor with the control group, while during the acute phase, the peak-systolic velocity (PSV) and end-diastolic velocity (EDV) of the hepatic artery were significantly higher than those in normal arteries (P<0.01). During the recovery phase, these indices of the hepatic artery decreased significantly to the control levels (P<0.01). The resistive index (RI) related to vascular resistance in the hepatic artery during the acute phase were significantly less than those in normal arteries (P<0.01), and they increased significantly to the control levels during the recovery phase (P<0.01). Conclusion: Doppler sonography is useful for imaging hepatic hemodynamic changes in children with acute viral hepatitis. We found that significant changes occur only in hepatic artery while no changes occurred in the portal vein. Also measurements of hepatic arterial flow during acute phase may be reliable for determining the prognosis of patients with viral hepatitis where the increased hepatic arterial blood flow during the acute phase may provide a marker for earlier recovery from hepatitis-induced damage and may be considered as a good marker for the prognosis.