Intrahepatic Arteriovenous Shunting in Cirrhosis of the Liver

Intrahepatic arteriovenous shunts have been demonstrated in 5 cirrhotic patients using 131I labelled macroaggregates of human serum albumin (131IMAA) injected into the hepatic artery (HA): In the cirrhotic patients, 6.0 to 33.8% (22.4 + 12.4) of the HA flow hypassed the sinusoidal bed. The shunted flow was 3% or less in each of the 3 non-cirrhotic patients tested (2.4 ± 0.9). Liver-lung scans were performed in all patients. Three of the five cirrhotic patients showed patchy uptake of 131IMA in the lungs. The three non-cirrhotic patients all showed homogeneous uptake of 131IMAA in the liver with no activity in the lungs.