Journal of AdvancedMedical and Dental Sciences Research

Background: Portal hypertension is classified as prehepatic (portal or splenic vein thrombosis); intrahepatic (cirrhosis), and posthepatic (Budd-Chiari syndrome). The most common cause of portal hypertension is cirrhosis. In cirrhosis, the increased resistance is mostly caused by hepatic architectural distortion (fibrosis and regenerative nodules) but about a third of the increased resistance is caused by intrahepatic vasoconstriction, amenable to vasodilators. Hence; the present study was undertaken for assessing the ultrasonographic findings in patients with portal hypertension. Materials & methods: A total of 30 patients with portal hypertension were enrolled. A Performa was made and complete demographic and clinical details of all the patients were recorded. Ultrasound was done in all the patients under the hands of skilled and experienced radiologists. All patients were subjected to routine haematological testing. All the results were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and were analysed by SPSS software. Chi- square test was used for assessment of level of significance. Results: Portal vein diameter was found to be more than 13 mm in 56.67 percent of the patients while it was less than 13 mm in 43.33 percent of the patients. In the present study, splenic vein diameter was more than 7 mm in 73.33 percent of the patients while it was less than 7 mm in 26.67 percent of the patients. Ascites was found to be present in 83.33 percent of the patients while it was found to be absent in 16.67 percent of the patients. While assessing the ultrasonographic findings among patients divided on the basis of gender, non-significant results were obtained. Conclusion: Ultrasound is an effective diagnostic technique in portal hypertension patients for assessing the severity of the disease. However; further studies are recommended. Key words: Portal hypertension, Ultrasound.