Abstract
Endoscopic studies were performed to determine whether changes occurred in the duodenum
related to portal hypertension in patients with liver cirrhosis. The total of 271
patients studied were subdivided into three groups: 83 patients with liver cirrhosis
and portal hypertension, 53 with liver cirrhosis but no portal hypertension, and 135
controls. In the duodenum of cirrhotic patients with portal hypertension several changes
were observed on endoscopy that were also present in the other two groups. Atrophy
and vascular malformations, however, were present only in the duodenum of cirrhotic
patients with portal hypertension, although in only a few patients and with statistical
significance only for vascular malformations (p < 0.01, phi = 0.21). Eleven percent
of the patients had more than one endoscopic finding, but the associations of findings
were without statistical significance. No statistically significant correlation was
observed between the clinical severity of cirrhosis or the severity of esophageal
varices and the endoscopic findings. Finally, there was no statistically significant
difference between the histological findings of duodenitis in the three groups of
patients.
