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Published on: December 15, 2023
Vascular reserve in the lower limbs of cirrhotic patients: a duplex Doppler ultrasound study
G La Villa1, G Barletta, D Righi
1Department of Internal Medicine, University of Florence School of Medicine, Florence, Italy.
Aim:
To evaluate femoral artery impedance at rest and during reactive hyperaemia.
Patients:
Study population comprised 11 cirrhotic patients without ascites, 10 with ascites and 16 age- and sex-matched healthy subjects.
Methods:
Echocardiographic assessment of systemic haemodynamics; duplex Doppler ultrasound measurement of femoral artery pulsatility index and vascular reserve [pulsatility index rest/pulsatility index hyperaemia).
Results:
Cirrhotic patients had elevated cardiac index and low systemic vascular resistance. Pulsatility index (right femoral artery) was not statistically different either at rest or after reactive hyperaemia (controls: rest 10.6 +/- 0.4, hyperaemia 2.6 +/- 0.2; compensated cirrhosis: rest 10.1 +/- 0.8, hyperaemia 3.4 +/- 0.4; ascitic cirrhosis: rest 11.4 +/- 1.6, hyperaemia 2.9 +/- 0.4. Vascular reserve was 4.38 +/- 0.35 in controls, 3.33 +/- 0.39 in compensated and 4.70 +/- 0.89 in ascitic cirrhosis (p = not significant). No correlation was found between systemic haemodynamic parameters and either pulsatility index or vascular reserve.
Conclusions:
The lower limb vascular reserve is preserved in cirrhosis.
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