Portal venous volume flow: in vivo measurement by time-domain color-velocity imaging

The portal venous velocity and flow volume in 39 patients (16 with liver cirrhosis, 11 with chronic hepatitis, 12 without liver disease) were measured using both color velocity imaging quantification (CVI-Q) and conventional Doppler flowmetry. The average portal venous velocity and flow volume values obtained using the two methods were similar. The correlation coefficients for the paired measurements show positive correlations (velocity: 0.73, p < 0.0001; volume: 0.50, p = 0.001). However, the coefficients of variation between the two methods were not good (velocity: 14.9%, volume: 26.4%). In conventional Doppler flowmetry, the mean velocity to maximum velocity ratio (Vmean:Vmax) is assumed to be constant (Vmean:Vmax = 0.57 in this study). However, the Vmean:Vmax ratios calculated from the flow profile in CVI-Q were 0.67 +/- 0.13 in the patients with liver cirrhosis, 0.58 +/- 0.13 in the patients with chronic hepatitis, and 0.53 +/- 0.08 in the patients without liver disease. Therefore, a measurement method that takes the blood flow profile into account, such as CVI-Q, might be useful for the quantitative measurement of the portal venous velocity and volume.