Hepatocarcinoma y trombosis portal diagnosticados por ecografía y tomografía computada en pacientes cirróticos chilenos en un hospital público, 2004 - 2011

there is no available data on prevalence of hepatocellular carcinoma (hcc) and portal thrombosis (pt) in chilean cirrhotic patients. objectives: to evaluate the development of these entities and the role ultrasound (us) may play as the imaging method of choice in their diagnostic approach. material and methods: a cohort study of patients with diagnosis of cirrhosis by us or ct scans between 2004 and 2008. we evaluated both demographic and clinical records, along with disease development until 2011, by performing a retrospective review of their imaging findings. we investigated whether patients presented hcc and / or pt as detected by us / ct studies. results: two hundred and eleven (211) patients with an average age of 62.6 years were included. hcc was diagnosed in 10.4% of cases, whilst pt was observed in 4.3% of patients. a 33% of pt occurred in association with hcc and exhibited worse survival rates. ultrasonographic studies yielded suspicious results in a significant percentage of cases, thus ct scans were performed to confirm the diagnosis. conclusions: ultrasound examination appears to be a useful tool for detecting complications of cirrhosis.