Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility of diagnosing acute cholecystitis in patients with liver cirrhosis using color Doppler imaging to demonstrate the hemodynamics.Methods
Color Doppler imaging was used to analyze the waveform of the cystic artery in 28 cirrhotic subjects with thickened gallbladder walls and 56 normal controls. The cirrhotic group was further divided into the cholecystitis group, containing 6 cirrhotic patients with acute cholecystitis, and the liver cirrhosis group, containing 22 cirrhotic patients without acute cholecystitis.Results
Maximum velocity (Vmax) was significantly higher in the cholecystitis group (31.6 ± 23.0 cm/s) than in the normal controls (16.1 ± 5.9 cm/s) (P Conclusion
A pulsatile signal with a maximum velocity of more than 40 cm/s, a resistance index lower than 0.75, or both indicated the presence of acute cholecystitis in patients with liver cirrhosis and a thickened gallbladder wall.