S. Sereno et al., Doppler sonography measurement of portal blood flow velocity after glucagon injection in patients with chronic HCV infection, ULTRASOUN M, 27(5), 2001, pp. 723-726
Doppler sonography measurement of portal flow velocity (PFV) after glucagon
injection was performed in 35 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV
) infection. Patients were divided into three groups: group 1 = no or mild
liver fibrosis; group 2 = moderate to severe liver fibrosis, and group 3 =
liver cirrhosis, All patients were examined using a Doppler ultrasound (US)
multipurpose equipment and a convex 3.5-MHz probe, 10 min before (baseline
), as well as 5 and 10 min after, IV administration of 1 mg of glucagon chl
oride. No significant differences were found in mean baseline PFV among gro
up 1 (19.4 +/- 2.4 cm/s), group 2 (20.1 +/- 3.6 cm/s) and group 3 (17.5 +/-
3.7 cm/s), Five minutes after glucagon injection, all three groups showed
significantly increased values of mean PFV (25.6 +/- 4.8, 23.7 +/- 4.0 and
19.5 +/- 5.0 cm/s, respectively; p < 0.05 vs. baseline). The mean increase
of PFV above baseline was significantly higher in group 1 (7.9 +/- 3.7 cm/s
) than in group 2 (4.5 +/- 3,9 cm/s) (p < 0.05) or in group 3 (2.7 +/- 2.3
cm/s) (p < 0.05), A significant inverse correlation was found between indiv
idual values of fibrosis score and of individual increase of PFV, m patient
s with chronic HCV infection, Doppler sonography measurement of PFV after g
lucagon injection could be useful in assessing the severity of liver histol
ogical damage. (E-mail: fabrizio.toccaceli@uniromal.it) (C) 2001 World Fede
ration for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology.