PORTAL-VEIN PULSATILITY IN NORMAL AND CIRRHOTIC ADULTS WITHOUT CARDIAC DISEASE

The literature indicates that Doppler demonstration of pulsatile flow in the portal vein suggests heart disease, and that retrograde transsi nusoidal transmission of atrial pulsations is the mechanism. We noninv asively investigated portal vein pulsatility (PVP) in normal subjects and in patients with cardiac and liver disease, and performed invasive studies in cirrhotic humans and normal pigs. We found that accentuate d PVP occurred in some normal subjects and in some patients with cirrh osis, and that mechanisms other than transsinusoidal transmission of a trial pulsations contributed to PVP. Determinants of PVP may include p ulsatile portal inflow, transmission of pulsations from the vena cava (IVC) and location of the Doppler sample volume relative to the IVC. ( C) 1995 John Wiley and Sons, Inc.