title: Echocardiographic findings before and after liver transplantation.
abstract: Echocardiographic studies were performed in 73 patients with various types of chronic liver disease. They were 0.5 to 19 years old (mean 5). Thirteen patients underwent follow-up echocardiography 1 to 13 months (mean 6) after liver transplantation. Preoperatively 60 patients (82%) showed evidence of high cardiac output (cardiac index greater than 4 liters/min/m2); these patients manifested increased left ventricular (LV) and left atrial dimensions and a thickened LV posterior wall. Transvenous contrast echocardiographic study confirmed the presence of intrapulmonary arteriovenous shunting in 4 patients. Studies after liver transplantation revealed a reduced LV end-diastolic dimension in 12 patients. Cardiac index was reduced a mean of 35% after transplantation (p less than 0.001). This study suggests that liver transplantation improves common hemodynamic abnormalities in chronic liver disease.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001011:Aorta / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004452:Echocardiography; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery; D016031:Liver Transplantation; D008297:Male; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011300:Preoperative Care; D013318:Stroke Volume