Hemodynamic Changes in Portal Vein and Frequencies of Acute and Chronic Portal Vein Thrombosis in Pediatric Patients Presenting with Hematemesis

Abstract

Objective:  The objective of the study is to calculate the frequency of portal vein thrombosis in pediatric patients presenting with hematemesis and to estimate the frequency of acute and chronic portal vein thrombosis in these cases.

Patients and Methods:  Pediatric patients of 1 – 15 years of age of either sex, presenting to emergency or gastroenterology department with complaint of hematemesis were included. Informed consent was taken from parents/guardians. This is a Descriptive cross sectional study conducted in department of pediatric radiology, Children Hospital and Institute of child Health Lahore from 11-12-2012 to 10-6-2013. Doppler ultrasound of these patients was performed at Core Vision pro SSA 350-A Doppler machine (Toshiba, Japan) using standard imaging protocols. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., IL, Chicago, USA)

Results:  In this study, 41% (n = 41) between 1 – 5 years, 38% (n = 38) between 6 – 10 years and only 21% (n = 21) between 11 – 15 years of age, 64%( n = 64) were male and remaining 36% (n = 36) were females, frequency of portal vein thrombosis in pediatric patients presenting with hematemesis reveals in 37% (n = 37) while 63% (n = 63) had no findings of PVT, frequency of acute and chronic forms in patients positive for portal vein thrombosis was 40.54% (n = 15) had acute and 59.46% (n = 22) had chronic portal vein thrombosis.

Conclusion:  We concluded that the frequency of portal vein thrombosis in pediatric patients presenting with hematemesis and frequency of acute and chronic forms in patients positive for portal vein thrombosis is in accordance with other studies while color Doppler ultrasound is a useful diagnostic modality being noninvasive and cost effective.