Arteriovenous shunts involving the liver.

Arteriovenous shunting in the liver is a rare angiographic finding. Review of the literature shows that most cases are related to trauma or neoplasm. The authors discuss several entities which should also be included in the differential diagnosis, among them congenital arteriovenous malformations or hemangiomas of the liver and pancreas, cirrhosis with rearterialization of the liver, hepatic abscess, hypervascular liver metastases, and primary tumors with invasion of the portal and hepatic veins by arterial neovasculature.