[Clinical significance of echography in the diagnosis of portal circulatory disorders].

Forty-one patients with the endoscopically diagnosed varicose veins of the esophagus and stomach were examined. The echograms of 32 patients with liver cirrhosis showed the impoverishment of the vascular pattern of the liver parenchyma, dilatation of the portal, superior mesenterial and splenic veins, enlargement of the coronary vein of the stomach, uncovered gastroesophageal and splenorenal collaterals, the umbilical vein, and increase in the size and echogenicity of the spleen. In 5 patients with neoplastic and in 4 patients with inflammatory occlusion of the main veins of the portal system, the normal or high-contrast vascular pattern of the liver parenchyma, no signs of the recanalization of the umbilical vein attested to the absence of any correlation between portal hypertension and liver diseases.