Abstract:
Portal hypertension occurs when the portal venous pressure exceeds 15mm Hg.. Liver cirrhosis, whatever the primary cause, is the commonest cause of portal hypertension. Because of its accessibility, lack of ionizing radiation and rapid assessment, sonography plays a major role in the assessment of portal hypertension. Even if the additional use of color and spectral Doppler improves the assessment of patients suspected of having portal hypertension, gray scale assessment of portal vein diameter is corner stone in the initial evaluation. Therefore knowing the normal portal venous dimension in a study population of interest is so crucial. Objective: The main objective of the study is ultrasound assessment of normal portal vein diameter in Ethiopians patients visiting Jimma University Specialized Hospital. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional study was done at Jimma University Specialized Hospital to sonographically assess the normal portal vein diameter pattern. Data were collected from patients visiting radiology department on consecutive bases from Dec- Jan, 2014 and analyzed using spss version 16 Result: A total of 195 patients were included on the study, 75(38.5%) were females while 120(61.5%) were males. Mean PVD in quiet respiration and in the extremes of respiration was almost the same, 10.3 +1.8mm and 10.66+1.8mm respectively. The mean of portal vein diameter in Male were 11.10 +1.7mm and of Females were 10.1 + 1.5 mm ,and there p-value =0.096. Nineteen (10%) of participants had mean portal vein diameter of greater than 13mm (above normal) while 176(90%) had less than 13mm (normal range). There is significant variation of PVD with age but not with sex. The Pearson correlation between them was correlated at 0.001. Conclusion: The mean portal vein diameter of the majority of the participants was comparable with many other study results and can be used as a base line for further related studies and workup of the causes of abnormally high portal vein diameter noted in this study
