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Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 859213, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/859213
Endoscopic Color Doppler Ultrasonography for Esophagogastric Varices
Department of Gastroenterology,
Sapporo-Kosei General Hospital, Kita 3 Higashi 8, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo 060-0033, Japan
Received 22 July 2012; Revised 5 October 2012; Accepted 20 October 2012
Academic Editor: Atsushi Irisawa
Copyright © 2012 Takahiro Sato and Katsu Yamazaki. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Esophagogastric varices are considered to be the most common complication in patients with portal hypertension. Endoscopic ultrasonography not only visualizes the surface of the varices but also provides detailed information about their internal structure. The direction of blood flow can be determined and its velocity measured only via endoscopic color Doppler ultrasonography (ECDUS). This can show graphically esophageal varices, paraesophageal veins, and passageways in esophageal variceal patients and gastric varices, perigastric collateral veins in gastric variceal patients. It is important to evaluate the hemodynamics of the portal venous system when treating the esophago-gastric varices. ECDUS is a useful modality for the evaluation of the detailed hemodynamics and the therapeutic effects of esophago-gastric varices.