A physician with at least 3 y experience in sonography performed all the sonographic examinations using an
iU22 US scanner (Philips Healthcare, Bothell, Washington, USA). In all the patients, we measured the spleen size, the direction and flow velocity of the main portal vein. In the patients with TIPS, we evaluated the direction of flow (hepatopetal vs. hepatofugal) of the main portal vein and intrahepatic portal vein branches (hepatopetal vs. hepatofugal), and we measured the flow velocity in the shunt at two sites (proximal and distal).
The CDUS parameters analyzed and considered as pathologic were: the presence of a hepatofugal direction of flow in the main portal vein, a flow velocity of the main portal vein slower than 30 cm/s, a hepatopetal direction of flow in the intrahepatic portal vein branches and a flow velocity in the TIPS <90 cm/s and/or >190 cm/s.
Giunta M., La Mura V., Conti C.B., Casazza G., Tosetti G., Gridavilla D., Segato S., Nicolini A., Primignani M., Lampertico P, & Fraquelli M. (2020). The Role of Spleen and Liver Elastography and Color-Doppler Ultrasound in the Assessment of Transjugular Intrahepatic Portosystemic Shunt Function. Ultrasound in medicine & biology, 46(7).