Hirotaka Musha

Nonsurgical, percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography—Diagnostic significance in medical problems of the liver

Percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography has been carried out from the right flank on 314 patients with hepatobiliary disease, using a very thin needle. Practically no complication has been encountered in 80 cases with medical problems of the liver. In contrast, such complications as bile leakage, bleeding, shock, fever, and blood pressure drop were experienced in patients with biliary obstruction and stones, though less frequently than reported. The intrahepatic bile ducts were visualized in 67.5% of the patients with no to minimal dilatation, and this high success rate is accounted for by the policy of injecting contrast medium instead of suctioning bile in search of an intrahepatic duct. This technique has proved of value in the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholestasis, inflammation or infection of the bile ducts, space-occupying lesions of the liver, and in elucidating the cause of biliary colics. It sometimes provides unexpected information. It may also serve the same purpose as portography and hepatic arteriography, since these vessel systems run together with the bile duct.

Incidence of portal vein thrombosis in liver cirrhosis

Portal vein thrombosis was thought to be a common complication of liver cirrhosis in the past. The incidence of angiographically demonstrable portal vein thrombosis was studied in 708 consecutive patients with unequivocal cirrhosis seen in the past 10 yr in whom either transhepatic portography or superior mesenteric arterial portography clearly delineated the major portal vein system. Excluding 2 cases that were thought to be associated with past splenectomy, there were 4 cases of portal vein thrombosis related to cirrhosis, all in a decompensated stage. The calculated incidence of portal vein thrombosis was 0.573% of all cirrhotic patients without splenectomy in the past. They constituted 23.5% of the 17 cases of extrahepatic portal vein obstruction encountered during the same period. There were 78 cases of idiopathic portal hypertension similarly studied angiographically, and the incidence of portal vein thrombosis unrelated to splenectomy was 2.86%. A statistical survey based on 247,728 necropsies recorded in the Japan Autopsy Registries of 1975-1982 showed a 0.05489% incidence of portal vein thrombosis and a 6.58857% incidence of cirrhosis of all types among them, suggesting that portal vein thrombosis is not a common complication of cirrhosis in Japan in recent years.

Clinical Study of Eighty-six Cases of Idiopathic Portal Hypertension and Comparison With Cirrhosis With Splenomegaly

The clinical features of 86 cases of idiopathic portal hypertension, the equivalent of hepatoportal sclerosis in the United States and of noncirrhotic portal fibrosis in India, are presented. This disease is characterized by overt splenomegaly with pancytopenia, portal hypertension, and relatively mild abnormalities in liver function tests. Although differential diagnosis from liver cirrhosis is not always easy, liver histology, laparoscopy, portography, hepatic venography, and measurement of wedged hepatic vein pressure are useful in diagnosis. Prognosis is relatively benign if variceal bleeding is controlled or prevented, and the disease does not progress to cirrhosis. The etiology is still undetermined, but the liver pathology characterized by occlusive changes of the intrahepatic portal radicles, portal and periportal fibrosis, and irregularly distributed parenchymal atrophies suggests some sort of portal venopathy that causes decreased portal perfusion of peripheral liver parenchyma. These patients with idiopathic portal hypertension were compared with 63 cases of cirrhosis with splenomegaly and 80 cases of cirrhosis without splenomegaly. There was some similarity in hematologic findings between idiopathic portal hypertension and cirrhosis with splenomegaly, but the basic disease process seemed distinctly different. The cause of marked splenomegaly does not seem to be simply congestion, and remains an enigma.

Angiographic demonstration of intrahepatic arterio-portal anastomoses in hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatic angiograms of 114 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) were studied, particularly changes in the portal vein branches. Arterio-portal shunts of varying sizes, evidenced by opacification of intrahepatic portal branches, were seen in 72 cases (63.2%), with retrograde opacification of the portal vein trunk in 29 (25.4%). At least four types of shunts were found: (a) through a tumor thrombus in the portal branch, (b) in a retrograde direction via a peripheral tumor nodule, (c) through a small tumor invading or amputating an artery, and (d) through a tumor located near a major portal vein branch and supplied by a large, coiling artery. Postmortem angiography of the liver in 50 patients with HCC suggests that arterio-portal shunts are the result of the special vasculature in HCC and are highly diagnostic when accompanied by other angiographic changes.

Angiographic Assessment of Gross Anatomy of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Comparison of Celiac Angiograms and Liver Pathology in 100 Cases1

Of 190 sets selective celiac and/or hepatic angiograms obtained in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), comparison with gross anatomy of the liver was subsequently made by autopsy in 77 and by surgery in 23. It was found that the gross anatomy of HCC can be assessed with certain accuracy by careful interpretation of the angiograms, because tumor vasculature and vascular alterations in the noncancerous parenchyma are closely related to the mode of tumor growth, size of tumor nodules and their distribution. Even a fibrous capsule of the tumor may be discerned as a radiolucent zone around the tumor contour. Diagnosis of the gross anatomical type of HCC is important to the selection of therapeutic measure and assessment of prognosis.

Antibody To Hepatitis B Core Antigen In Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HBs, and anti-HB core (HBc) were measured in 124 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in comparison with 299 control subjects of comparable ages, and in 48 cases of chronic hepatitis and 52 cases of hepatic cirrhosis. It was found that 72.6% of the HCC patients were positive for anti-HBc, and 80.6% were positive for at least one test, whereas in the control, anti-HBc was positive in 30.1% and 34.1% were positive for at least one test, the differences between the two groups being significant (P less than 0.01). The frequencies of positive tests for HBsAg and anti-HBc were the highest in HCC followed in decreasing order by cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis and the control group. A possible role of HB virus infection in hepatocellular carcinoma is discussed in relation to other factors.

Portal hemodynamics in chronic portal-systemic encephalopathy: Angiographic study in seven cases

A portal hemodynamic study was made in 7 consecutive patients with chronic portal-systemic encephalopathy by percutaneous transhepatic catheterization of the portal vein and injecting contrast medium into the superior mesenteric vein or by superior mesenteric arterial portography in comparison with patients without encephalopathy studied by percutaneous catheterization of these veins. All 7 patients had a large gastro-renal or spleno-renal shunt, and a large proportion of superior mesenteric venous blood was being shunted as estimated from the diameter of the portal and the collateral vein, whereas in nonencephalopathic patients in whom part of the superior mesenteric venous blood was shunting this diversion was much less (P less than 0.001). Only one of the chronic portal-systemic encephalopathic patients had esophageal varices, insignificant in size, and the incidence of esophageal varices was significantly less compared to the 12 nonencephalopathic control patients with portal hypertension who had either a gastro-renal or spleno-renal shunt (P less than 0.05). It is suggested that chronic portal-systemic encephalopathy is a result of a large collateral route shunting a large proportion of the superior mesenteric venous blood into systemic circulation, and that development of such collaterals precludes formation of large esophageal varices.

Hepatic Lymphatics as Opacified by Percutaneous Intrahepatic Injection of Contrast Medium: Analysis of Hepatic Lymphograms in 125 Cases

Hepatic lymph vessels were opacified in 125 patients with various hepatobiliary diseases during percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography or portography. Contrast medium deposited in the parenchyma flowed relatively quickly in winding channels, usually toward the hepatic hilus. No correlation was demonstrated between the locus of the intraparenchymal deposit and the direction of the flow. Contrast medium also opacified the lymphatics near the hepatic hilus and abdominal aorta. Neither jaundice nor liver disorder were prerequisite for the visualization of the hepatic lymphatics. The intrahepatic injection of contrast medium provides a safe and useful method for the study of hepatic lymph and its pathways.

Studies on nicotinic acid interaction with bilirubin metabolism

The mechanism by which intravenous administration of nicotinic acid (NA) increases serum unconjugated bilirubin in patients with the Gilberts syndrome has been investigated. Studies using the technique of percutaneous transhepatic catheterization of the splenic vein and coil planet centrifuge suggested that following intravenous injection of NA some of the circulating erythrocytes were rendered osmotically fragile and trapped by the spleen and that unconjugated bilirubin increased in the splenic vein blood. In patients with liver cirrhosis, the increments of unconjugated bilirubin were closely correlated with the weights of the spleens removed for the management of varices. In rats, intravenous NA injection enhanced heme oxygenase activities in the spleen, but not uridine-5′-diphosphate (UDP)-glucuronyltransferase activity in the liver. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that NA-induced unconjugated hyperbilirubinemia is a result of complex reactions which include increased erythrocyte fragility, increased splenic heme oxygenase activity, and increased formation of bilirubin in the spleen.

Effects of intra- and extrahepatic portal systemic shunts on insulin metabolism

To study the effects of intra- and extrahepatic portal-systemic shunts on insulin degradation, 11 patients with liver cirrhosis and 7 noncirrhotic patients with liver disease were studied with percutaneous transhepatic catheterization. Insulin levels in portal and peripheral blood were measured simultaneously for 1–2 hr after intravenous administration of glucose. The degrees of intra- and extrahepatic portal-systemic shunting were measured with this technique using131I-macroaggregated albumin and99mTc-macroaggregated albumin. The amount of insulin secreted and insulin degraded were assessed from the areas under blood concentration curves for portal and peripheral blood. Insulin degradation was significantly reduced in cirrhotics compared to noncirrhotics with liver disease, although there was no difference in the amount of insulin secreted between these two groups. It was also correlated significantly with the degree of intrahepatic shunting but not with the degree of extrahepatic shunting. These results suggest that intrahepatic shunting plays an important role in the reduction of insulin degradation in cirrhosis.