Serial measurement of Doppler hepatic hemodynamic parameters for the diagnosis of acute rejection after live donor liver transplantation

Abstract

To elucidate the role of Doppler hepatic hemodynamic parameters as surrogate markers of acute rejection (AR) after live donor liver transplantation (LDLT), serial Doppler measurements were prospectively performed during the first 2 weeks after LDLT to compare the longitudinal hepatic hemodynamic changes between patients with histologically proven AR and patients without histologically proven AR. Forty-six patients that had undergone adult-to-adult LDLT using a right lobe graft were enrolled in this study. The portal venous maximum velocity (PVV; cm/second), portal venous flow volume, hepatic arterial peak systolic velocity, hepatic arterial pulsatility index, hepatic venous maximum velocity, hepatic venous pulsatility index, and splenic arterial pulsatility index were measured. Fourteen patients were diagnosed by biopsy to have clinically relevant AR. Markedly increased PVV was seen soon after surgery and gradually decreased in both patients with clinically relevant AR and patients without clinically relevant AR. This serial change of decreasing PVV was significantly greater in patients with clinically relevant AR (P < 0.0001). After postoperative day 6, the PVV in patients with clinically relevant AR was significantly lower than that in patients without clinically relevant AR (PVV on postoperative day 6: 35.6 +/- 21.3 versus 58.3 +/- 27.1 cm/second, respectively, P = 0.0080). A PVV cutoff value of 20.2 cm/second demonstrated the best accuracy for predicting clinically relevant AR. The sensitivity and specificity for predicting clinically relevant AR were 92.9% and 87.1%, respectively. The area under the curve was 0.94. In conclusion, serial Doppler measurement of hepatic parameters in LDLT is useful for the diagnosis of clinically relevant AR. Clinically relevant AR should therefore be suspected when a marked unexpected decrease in the PVV is observed.