Diagnostic Value of Color Doppler Ultrasound and Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound in the Artery Steal Syndrome After Orthotopic Liver Transplantation

Figures & data

Table 1 Findings from CDU and CEU Before and After Splenic Artery Embolization

Variables	No Embolization	Splenic Artery Embolization
		Before	After	P
Portal vein flow rate	41.63±13.76	51.03±31.78	38.22±14.17	0.093
Hepatic artery flow rate	16.67±5.89	9.77±8.20	45.98±20.63	0.005
RI of hepatic artery	0.84±0.17	0.88±0.18	0.66±0.13	0.012
Splenic artery flow rate	153.33±22.62	170.12±32.04	80.47±37.91	0.005
Time difference	3.29±1.26	1.20±1.55	10.70±3.97	0.005

Note: Blood flow rate: cm/s; time difference: s.

Figure 1 Left: color Doppler ultrasound image. The hepatic artery blood flow signals disappeared and only the portal vein blood flow signals were displayed. Right: contrast-enhanced ultrasound image. The contrast arrived at the hepatic artery and portal vein at the same time, the hepatic artery was visualized and had small diameter and the peak intensity of the contrast was significantly lower than that of portal vein (arrow).

Figure 2 Left and middle: color Doppler ultrasound images. Left: the blood flow velocity was 16.7 cm/s on the hepatic artery spectrum; middle: the splenic artery velocity was 208.2 cm/s on the splenic artery spectrum; right: white arrows showed the large spleen artery and green arrows showed the fine hepatic artery.

Table 2 Clinical Prognosis of 17 Patients with Splenic Artery Embolism

Case	Before Splenic Artery Embolism				After Splenic Artery Embolism
	AST (IU/L)	ALT (IU/L)	TBIL (mmol/l)	DBIL (mmol/l)	AST (IU/L)	ALT (IU/L)	TBIL (mmol/l)	DBIL (mmol/l)
1	32	90	240.7	176.8	65	101	88.5	76.3
2	37	65	208.5	162.7	18	31	202.7	159.6
3	253	94	108	79.8	46	47	47.4	37.8
4	71	84	59	32.5	74	38	36.1	27.1
5	397	254	123	71.3	128	140	93.2	52.6
6	321	540	117.8	71.8	66	90	14.2	7.2
7	17	16	113	100	25	32	103	79
8	24	24	20.7	6.2	21	14	19.1	7.2
9	111	140	246.2	176.9	65	79	136.8	154.5
10	98	132	219	168.5	54	249	46.7	25.5
11	233	345	56.4	34	186	285	61.6	35.0
12	206	369	34.5	16.8	49	103	28.3	12.8
13	179	154	59.8	38.2	129	156	67.7	38.5
14	136	119	112.5	89.4	89	97	55.6	27.5
15	882	508	25.7	14.3	345	406	31.5	19.8
16	223	564	63.8	50.9	58	102	57.5	33.6
17	576	516	117.1	41.7	68	134	44.4	25