HEPATIC-ARTERY - EFFECT OF A MEAL IN HEALTHY-PERSONS AND TRANSPLANT RECIPIENTS

Thirty healthy volunteers and 12 liver allograft recipients (two with cirrhotic changes seen at microscopy) were given a standard meal. Dopp ler sonography of the right and left hepatic arteries, the superior me senteric artery, and the portal vein was performed. The change in hepa tic arterial resistance was evaluated with the resistive index (RI). A fter the standard meal, portal venous flow increased in both the healt hy volunteers and allograft recipients (more so in the latter group). Superior mesenteric arterial RI decreased in all subjects. A postprand ial increase in hepatic arterial RI, likely reflecting constriction of the hepatic artery, was seen in both groups. It was absent in the two patients with recurrent transplant cirrhosis. These results show the importance of examining hepatic arterial flow in the fasting subject, since high resistance after a meal may be falsely interpreted as a sig n of disease. Absence of a postprandial change in resistance of the he patic artery could signal abnormal liver function.