Purpose: To determine the prevalence of echo-rich and echo-poor periportal cuffing in patients from a German tertiary referral hospital and correlate ultrasonographic findings with clinical data.
Materials and methods: From April 2002 till April 2008 about 10 500 abdominal examinations were performed by a single physician in our interdisciplinary ultrasound unit. During this time, n = 100 patients (62 male/ 38 female) with periportal cuffing of the liver were detected qualifying for the retrospective study design. Echomorphology of periportal cuffing was evaluated and clinical diagnoses of the underlying diseases were clustered in four main groups: Liver diseases, haematological diseases, bowel diseases and others. Furthermore, liver function tests and body mass index were determined.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 57.06 years (SD +/- 19.47). Mean body-mass-index was 24.76 kg/m (2) (SD +/- 4.28). Periportal cuffing was echo-poor in n = 9 (9 %) and echo-rich in n = 91 (91 %). Echo-poor periportal cuffing was significantly more often associated with malignant diseases as compared to echo-rich periportal cuffing (78 vs. 36 %) (p < 0.025). Liver diseases (n = 33) were malign n = 10 (10 %), autoimmune n = 8 (8 %), infectious n = 8 (8 %) and cholestatic n = 7 (7 %). Bowel diseases (n = 34) originated from the upper gastrointestinal tract n = 7 (7 %), lower gastrointestinal tract n = 21 (21 %) and the pancreas n = 6 (6 %). Haematological disorders (n = 15, 15 %) were chronic myeloproliferative n = 2 (2 %), lymphoma n = 8 (8 %), leukemia n = 4 (4 %) and miscellaneous n = 1 (1 %). Other diseases accounted for 18 (18 %) of cases. Aspartat-aminotrasferase (AST) and alanin-aminotransferase (ALT) were elevated in 39 patients (40 %) and 34 patients (35 %), respectively. Total bilirubin was elevated in 35 patients (36 %). Alkaline phosphatase (AP) was detected above normal range in 49 patients (50 %) whereas g-glutamyl-transferase was elevated in 58 patients (59 %).
Conclusion: Periportal cuffing of the liver is an extremely rare ultrasonographic phenomenon with a prevalence of approximately 0.95 % in our unit. Echo-rich periportal cuffing occurs more frequently than echo-poor periportal cuffing. The majority of echo-poor periportal cuffing is associated with malignant disorders, in particular haematological diseases, whereas echo-rich periportal cuffing is most frequently seen in inflammatory bowel disease patients.