Reversibility of hepatopulmonary syndrome evidenced by serial pulmonary perfusion scan

A patient with liver cirrhosis who exhibited marked hypoxemia is presented. An abnormal dilatation of intrapulmonary capillaries was evidenced by perfusion lung scan, contrast-enhanced echocardiography, and histological examinations of lungs. Serial perfusion lung scan disclosed that the radioisotope uptake by extrapulmonary organs was significantly increased and uptake by both lungs was significantly decreased during the state of severer hypoxemia. Shunt quantification method revealed that intrapulmonary right-to-left shunt ratio also paralleled the extent of hypoxemia. The pathophysiology of hepatopulmonary syndrome appeared to involve a reversible intrapulmonary vascular dilatation. The perfusion lung scan could semiquantitate the severity of intrapulmonary vascular dilatation and could offer the efficient method to follow their progress.