Relationship between liver function and splenic blood flow (quantitative measurement of splenic blood flow with...

We measured splenic blood flow in 55 patients by means of quantitative splenic positron emission tomography (PET), a novel, dynamic state method with H2(15)O as a tracer. Twenty-four of the 55 patients suffered from liver cirrhosis (LC), 25 showed no evidence of cirrhosis (NR) and 6 patients were diagnosed as having chronic hepatitis (CH). Splenic blood flow per 100 g weight of the spleen (SBF) was significantly correlated with splenic volume (r = -0.39, p < 0.005). The indocyanine green retention test at 15 min (r = -0.39, p < 0.005) and the hepaplastin test (r = 0.37, p < 0.025) also correlated significantly with SBF. The means and 95% confidence intervals for the LC, CH, and NR groups were 117.5 ml/min/100 g (96.6-138.4), 102.5 ml/min/100 g (60.6-144.4), and 160.3 ml/min/100 g (139.8-180.8), respectively. The differences in SBF between these 3 groups were significant (p < 0.01). We conclude that regional splenic blood flow is not proportionate to splenic volume, although the splenic volume does increase with the progressive chronic changes observed in hepatic diseases.