Portal Venous Pulsatility Index as a predictor of fibrosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Shisheng Lu; Robyn Archard; Linda Mcleod; Angus Banh; Danny Con; Zaid Ardalan; Numan Kutaiba

doi:10.1002/ajum.12286

Portal Venous Pulsatility Index as a predictor of fibrosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Australas J Ultrasound Med. 2021 Oct 18;25(1):36-41. doi: 10.1002/ajum.12286. eCollection 2022 Feb.

Authors

Shisheng Lu¹, Robyn Archard¹, Linda Mcleod¹, Angus Banh¹, Danny Con², Zaid Ardalan^{3

4}, Numan Kutaiba¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
² Department of General Medicine Eastern Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
³ Department of Gastroenterology Austin Health Melbourne Victoria Australia.
⁴ Department of Gastroenterology Alfred Health and Monash University Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Abstract

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing public health issue. Non-invasive methods to assess the fibrosis stage are limited, and biopsy remains the gold standard. The objective of our study was to assess whether the portal venous pulsatility index (VPI) can be used as a predictor of high-risk NAFLD at a tertiary referral centre for liver transplantation.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed patients with biopsy-proved NAFLD who had undergone a liver ultrasound scan within 1 year of biopsy at our centre from 2011 to 2019.

Results: We did not find a significant correlation between the VPI and the NAFLD risk category or correlation between the VPI and degree of steatosis (P > 0.05 for both).

Conclusion: Since VPI can be easily obtained on routine liver ultrasound and since other studies do report a positive association with significant fibrosis, more studies are needed before it can be recommended or not in risk-stratifying NAFLD patients into high- vs. low-risk NAFLD.

Keywords: cirrhosis; high‐risk NAFLD; non‐alcoholic steatohepatitis; non‐invasive; risk stratification; ultrasound.