Spontaneous intrahepatic portosystemic venous shunt in a patient with cirrhosis: diagnosis by combined color Doppler and pulsed Doppler ultrasonography.

Large spontaneous intrahepatic portosystemic venous shunts are occasionally found and their diagnosis by Doppler sonography is rarely reported. The authors describe a case of spontaneous intrahepatic porto-systemic venous shunt in liver cirrhosis diagnosed by color Doppler and characterized by an unusual pulsed Doppler spectrum: a continuous flat portal-like pattern of flow in the portal branch, and in both the shunt and the hepatic vein.