Eco-doppler spleno-portale in pazienti con splenomegalia linfo o mielo-proliferativa.Confronto con la cirrosi epatica splenomegalica

We compared eco-Doppler parameters between patients with splenomegaly affected by lympho-myelo-proliferative diseases and cirrhosis of the liver. We studied 41 patients with haematological splenomegaly (HS), 35 subjects affected by splenomegalic liver cirrhosis (LCS) and 43 subjects without splenomegaly (C), mean age 58.1 ± 14.5 yr. We observed a significant increase of portal and splenic vein diameters with elevated blood flow mean velocity and blood flow in (HS) vs C (p < 0.001). The comparison between (HS) and (LCS) shows different portal diameters (more increased in (LCS) than in (HS), p < 0.01), portal and splenic venous blood flow mean velocity (higher in HS vs LCS, p < 0.001), and portal blood flow (more elevated in HS vs LCS, p < 0.01). Only in HS we observed a correlation between splenic size and portal blood flow (r = 0.30, p < 0.05). This study suggests that splenic vein blood flow mean velocity could be the most specific echo-Doppler parameter for diagnosis of haematological splenomegaly: we observed values of blood flow mean velocity more elevated than 30 cm/sec only in haematological disease.