Evaluation of portal venous flow as a non-invasive method for diagnosing liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between portal venous flow (PVF), which could be measured non-invasively with Doppler ultrasound, and the degree of fibrosis obtained by biopsy in patients with chronic hepatitis (CHB).

Materials and Methods: The study included 133 patients with CHB. During the Doppler evaluation, PVF was calculated in addition to routine measurements. The patients were divided into two groups according to the degree of fibrosis based on the biopsy results: F0 and F1 (first group) and F2, F3 and F4 (second group). The Doppler ultrasound findings obtained from all patients were compared with the pathology results.

Results: The mean PVF was measured as 688.38 +/- 608.2 mL/ minute. An inverse correlation was detected between PVF and liver fibrosis degree (p<0.0001, Spearman's correlation coefficient 0.47). In the receiver-operating characteristic analysis, the area under the curve was 71.1% (95% confidence interval: 55.6%-83.6%). The cut-off value for PVF was calculated as 480 mL/minute, at which it had a sensitivity of 57.8% and specificity of 100%.

Conclusion: We considered that the decrease we showed in PVF in our study could be used as a non-invasive evaluation method in the differentiation of mild and significant fibrosis in non-cirrhotic patients.