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Abstract Portal vein thrombosis is a complication of hepatic cirrhosis that can.be caused by benign or malignant process. Most of (he benign PVT occur as a result of development of portal hypertension and venous stasis and most of the malignant portal vein thrombi occur by direct invasion of the portal vein by HCC.The nature of the thrombus can have a significant impact on treatment. Because the prevalence of tumor recurrence is nearly 100%, patients who have hepatocellular carcinoma and proved neoplastic vascular invasion are not candidates for hepatic resection or transplantation, only palliative therapy (systemic or intra-arlerial chemotherapy ) may be offered to those patients who are shown to have incurable advanced stage disease. Although it might seem reasonable to assume that a PVT in a patient with HCC is malignant and that one in hepatic tumor is benign, in practice, benign or malignant portal vein thrombi can occur in either situation. Consequently, these thrombi have been studied in an effort to determine imaging characteristics that could be used to distinguish benign from malignant thrombi. Duplex sonography sonography provides an accurate assessment of the portal and hepatic venous systems that is both non invasive and convenient because the examination can be conducted at the bed side. Furtherore it is relatively inexpensive. |