Abstract
Background:
Biliary complications are significant source of morbidity after liver transplantation (LT). Cholangiography is the gold standard for diagnosis and specification of biliary complications.Objectives:
Detailed analyses of ultrasound (US) as a safe imaging method in this regard are still lacking. Therefore we analyzed systematically the diagnostic value of US in these patients.Patients and Methods:
Retrospectively, 128 liver graft recipients and their clinical data were analyzed. All patients had a standardized US examination. The findings of US were compared to cholangiographic results in 42 patients. Following statistical analyses were performed: descriptive statistics, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV).Results:
42 patients had 54 different biliary complications (Anastomotic stenosis (AS) n = 33, ischemic type biliary lesions (ITBL) n = 18 and leakage n = 3). US detected n = 22/42 (52%) patients with biliary complications. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of US were: 61%, 100%, 100%, 79% (95CI, 36-86%) for ITBL and 24%, 100, 100%, 31% (95CI, 9-46 %) for AS, respectively.Conclusions:
US examination had no false positive rate. Therefore, it may be helpful as a first screening modality. But for the direct diagnosis of the biliary complication US is not sensitive enough.Keywords
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© 2013, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.