Portal venous system measurements in portal hypertension.

The diameters of the portal, splenic, superior mesenteric, and coronary veins were measured during umbilicoportal venography in 64 cirrhotic patients with or without portal hypertension. The diameter of the portal vein did not increase along with the portohepatic gradient and even tended to decrease depending on the severity of hypertension and the opening of spontaneous portosystemic shunts. While there was no relationship between portohepatic gradient and splenic or superior mesenteric vein diameter, a coronary vein larger than 0.7 cm was associated with a portohepatic gradient greater than 10 mm Hg. This could be a useful sign of severe portal hypertension.