[Hypoxia in cirrhotic patients. Apropos of a case]

The authors report a case of hypoxia in a non-smoking cirrhotic patient. The pathophysiological hypotheses proposed to date to explain this hypoxia without pulmonary artery hypertension, but accompanied by disturbances of carbon monoxide transport, reveal a common element which is difficult to diagnose and quantify: intra-pulmonary shunts. The authors consider gamma-angiocardiography to be a simple diagnostic procedure.