Background: The chronological pattern of extrahepatic lymphatic vessel progression in the course of chronic liver disease has not been clarified. This study aimed to clarify the chronological changes in lymphatic vessels with liver disease progression.
Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study that enrolled a total of 199 patients. The maximum diameter of the cisterna chyli (CC) or terminal thoracic duct (tTD) was measured using computed tomography or ultrasonography, respectively. Changes in the maximum diameters of the CC and tTD were evaluated with patients with chronic liver disease as the pilot set (n = 138). Subsequently, we examined whether CC/tTD could be used to re-allocate unclassified patients by the Baveno-VII criteria to appropriately diagnose clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) in the pilot and validation sets.
Results: In the pilot set, a scatter-plot showed that both CC and tTD were narrowed as terminal features in chronic liver disease after dilation. Because there was a significant correlation between the CC diameter and hepatic venous pressure gradient (r = 0.724) in unclassified patients, the diagnostic value of CC and tTD for CSPH was good (AUC: 0.961 and 0.913, respectively). After re-allocation, 68 and 27 unclassified patients were reduced to 4 and 5 in the pilot and validation sets, respectively.
Conclusion: Both the CC and tTD narrow in the course of liver disease after dilation. Moreover, the maximum diameter of the CC and tTD can be used to re-allocate patients who are unclassified according to the Baveno-VII criteria.
Clinical trial number: UMIN trial no. 000044857.
Keywords: Baveno-VII criteria; Chronological lymphatic vessel change; Clinically significant portal hypertension; Computed tomography; Hepatic venous pressure gradient; Liver cirrhosis; Lymphatic vessels; Noninvasive test; Refractory ascites; Ultrasonography.
© 2023. Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver.