Lienal vein – hemodynamic aspects in portal insufficiency

Abstract

Introduction. The length of the lienal vein is 8–12 cm; caliber 6–12 mm, rectilinear trajectory. The lienal vein traverses the border of the pancreatic body, then joins the superior mesenteric vein at the pancreas neck to form the portal vein. The purpose of the study consists in study of blood supply in the lienal vein in case of portal insufficiency. Material and methods. Subjects to the study were 62 patients with liver cirrhosis - 46 men, 16 women, average age - 39±0.21 years. The studied linear parameters were calculated by Doppler quantification. The descriptive statistical test was applied. Results. Normally, the lienal vein (LV) diameter is 0.6±0.02 cm, up to 0.8 cm; average values in healthy people - 0.7±0.04 cm, linear velocity (LVC) in LV-13.8±0.6 cm/s, volume velocity (VV) - 231±13 ml/min. In group I, LVC was 13.1±0.1 cm/s, in group II-23.0±0.3 cm/sec; the VV was – 157±0.4 and 366±12 ml/min, respectively. The portal-splenic venous index decreased by 43% compared to the norm, indicating a redistribution of blood flow in the veins of the portal system towards the spleen. Conclusions. 1. The spectrographic curve in lienal vein increased more than 1.6 times. 2. These oscillations showed us that the diameter of the splenic vein expands considerably, reducing the speed of the systolic, diastolic and average blood flow both in the splenic vein and the portal vein.