Our study consisted of 222 patients who underwent liver transplantation between January 1999 and December 2009. DUS findings were correlated with multidetector computed tomography angiography (MDCTA) and angiographic results.
HAS occurred in 21 cases (9.5%). In all cases diagnosis was performed by DUS. MDCTA quantified stenosis and showed an overall picture of splanchnic vascularization. Based on DUS and MDCTA data integration, in 9 cases we adopted the 鈥渨ait and see鈥?strategy. Moreover in 12 cases treatment was considered necessary. For hepatic artery stenosis, use of DUS criteria resulted in a sensitivity of 100%(20/20), a specificity of 99.5%(201/202), a positive predictive value (PPV) of 95%(20/21), and negative predictive value (NPV) of 100%(201/201), and an overall accuracy of 99.5%(221/222).
Our study underline the role of DUS in early diagnosis of HAS: repeated evaluation of both direct and indirect signs increases NPV and sensitivity of DUS.