Noninvasive Assessment of Portal Hypertension Using Spectral Computed Tomography

Early diagnosis of portal hypertension is imperative for timely treatment to reduce the mortality rate. However, there is still no adequate method to noninvasively and accurately assess the portal hypertension in routine clinical practice.

We aimed to evaluate the accuracy of parameters measured using dual energy spectral computed tomography (LightSpeed CT750 HD) in assessing portal venous pressure in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Forty-five patients with liver cirrhosis who underwent percutaneous transhepatic portal vein puncture as part of their treatment for liver disease were enrolled in this study. Measurement of direct portal venous pressure was performed preoperatively. All patients underwent dual energy spectral computed tomography within 3 days before their operations.

The iodine concentrations of portal vein and hepatic parenchyma during the portal venous phase and the alanine aminotransferase level were found to be independently correlated with the direct portal venous pressure according to stepwise multivariate linear regression analysis (P<0.001, 0.004, and 0.024, respectively). In a receiver operating characteristic analysis, the area under the receiver operating characteristic of iodine concentrations of the portal vein (ICPV) for identifying clinically significant portal hypertension (≥10 mm Hg) was significantly higher than that of iodine concentrations of hepatic parenchyma (ICliver) and the alanine aminotransferase level (0.944, 0.825, and 0.301, respectively). The threshold ICPV of 58.27 yielded a sensitivity of 93.8%, specificity of 69.2%, positive predictive value of 88.2%, and negative predictive value of 81.8%, respectively.

ICPV values may be a useful tool in noninvasively assessing the portal venous pressure and identifying clinically significant portal hypertension in liver cirrhosis.