Background and aim: Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) is the blood clot formation within the trunk of the portal vein or its main branches. PVT prevalence is ∼1% in the general population. Aim: To determine the prevalence and characteristics of non-cirrhotic patients with PVT.
Material and methods: Research design: Descriptive, cross-sectional/prevalence. Procedure: We reviewed the medical records of all the patients admitted in 2019 with diagnosis of PVT. Of those we included only non-cirrhotic patients with a diagnosis of PVT. Qualitative variables were expressed as frequencies and percentages, numerical variables as mean and standard deviation.
Results: From 1371 patients admitted in the Gastroenterology Department in 2019, we found 40 patients with PVT (2.92%), of those only 10 non-cirrhotic patients were included. The prevalence was 0.76%; eight (80%) were men, mean age was 48.38±12.4 years-old. 1 patient had autoimmune hepatitis (10.0%) and 2 (20.0%) acute pancreatitis. 4 (40.0%) neoplasia, of them 1 (25.0%) with hepatocellular-carcinoma, 1 (25.0%) with cholangiocarcinoma, 1 (25.0%) with colon cancer and 1 (25.0%) with pancreatic cancer. Upper gastrointestinal bleeding was found in up to 5/10 (50.0%), of them: 2 (40.0%) had isolated gastric varices. 3 (30.0%) presented infection, of those 100.0% presented liver abscess. 9 (90.0%) had ascites, of them 7 (77.8%) grade I and 2 (22.2%) grade II. The results of complementary studies in patients without acute infection: leukocytes: 13,657±7.87, neutrophils: 12,314±8.12, albumin: 2.8gr/dl±0.64, AST: 54.55 U/L±40.96, ALT: 38.57 U/L±22.08, ALP: 212.57 U/L±171.27, GGT: 233.43 U/L±155.98, total-bilirubin: 1.37mg/dl±0.70, PT%: 74.71±20.87, DHL: 396.80 U/L±270.17. Regarding thrombus localization: 6 (60.0%) were in the portal vein and its branches, 3 (30.0%) in the portal vein trunk and 1 (10.0%) in a single branch. The mean flow of the portal vein was 20.70cm/s±15.52.
Conclusions: PVT in non-cirrhotic patients is more frequent in men, with protrombotic entities such as neoplasms, autoimmune diseases, pancreatitis and liver infections. The main pattern found in the liver function tests was cholestasic predominance and the most frequent localization was the portal vein trunk.
Conflicts of interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
