Usefulness of ultrasonography in the diagnosis of portal hypertension.

Portal hypertension syndrome is a common evolutive complication of several hepatic and extrahepatic diseases, being liver cirrhosis responsible for mo re than 80% of cases. When diagnosed it has prognostic value because of the high incidence of hemorragic, metabolic and infectious complications that these patients may develop. Clinical suspicion must be confirmed by objecti ve complementary studies that provide information about the ethiology and s everity of the disease. In this review article we describe the conribution of ultrasonography in th e evaluation of patients with portal hypertension as an objetive diagnostic method and the usefulness of doppler ultrasound in the non-invasive hemody namic assessment of the splachnic and portal circulation.