THE PREDICTION OF PORTAL PRESSURE - A MULTIVARIATE-ANALYSIS OF CLINICAL-DATA AND INTRAOPERATIVE PORTAL PRESSURE

Portal pressures were estimated non-invasively in 100 patients who und erwent hepatic resection and completely fulfilled the 21 variables eva luated. Ten variables were selected from among all those in the univar iate analysis, and a stepwise discriminant analysis revealed four inde pendent significant variables, namely: The indocyanine green dye reten tion test at 15 min (ICGR15); the prothrombin time index; the platelet count; and the globulin fraction. An equation to estimate the portal pressure was made using the coefficients in the analysis, the reliabil ity of which was confirmed (r = 0.70484, P = 0.0001). The univariate a nalysis revealed ten significant variables to discriminate portal hype rtension, defined as a portal pressure of over 200 mmH2O. A multiple l ogistic regression analysis of these variables revealed two independen t variables, being ICGR15 and the platelet count. Thus, we consider th at our equation for estimating portal pressure is potentially useful, and that the platelet count and ICGR15 are the most significant parame ters in discriminating between the presence or absence of portal hyper tension. Moreover, a platelet count of less than 120 X 10(3)/mm3 and a n ICGR15 value of more than 15% correlated well with portal hypertensi on.