[Doppler measurements of blood flow in the portal system of healthy volunteers].

A group of 50 healthy volunteers underwent the measurement of blood flow in the protal vein and in the splenic vein by means of the Acuson 128 sector ultrasound probe 3.5 MHz connected with the Doppler pulsation wave. The authors strictly obeyed the principle on directing the ultrasound beam at the vessel examined at an angle not larger than 25 degrees. The frequency spectrum obtained was used for calculating the medium speed of flow, and the diameter of the vessel found in the tw-dimension picture was used to calculate the surface of the cross section of a vessel. The blood flow was calculated by multiplying the medium flow speed by the surface of the cross-section of a vessel. The flow in the portal vein amounted to 853 +/- 130 ml/min., and the flow in the splenic vein amounted to 327 +/- 141 ml/min. The flow in the portal vein was best correlated with the body mass, and the flow in the splenic vein with the volume of the spleen.