[Portal venous system calcifications. Study of 3 cases and review of the literature].

Three cases of calcifications of the portal system are reported in men aged 42, 53 and 40 years old. Two patients had alcoholic cirrhosis, and one had familial congenital hepatic fibrosis, respectively. Calcifications were discovered fortuitously on plain abdominal films. Ultrasound and computed tomography studies, and in two cases, angiography, confirmed that calcifications were located within the vein walls. The veins involved were the portal vein in 3 cases, the splenic vein in 2 cases, and the superior mesenteric and left gastric veins in one case each. Investigations demonstrated splenoportal and splenic thrombosis in 2 cases, whereas the portal vein system was patent in the other. In two cases, the splenic artery was aneurysmal, associated with several intrasplenic arterial aneurysms in one. Based on these three cases, combined with a review of the literature of 123 previous reports, the features of this rare entity are described with emphasis placed on the value of computed tomography studies.