Portal venous gas: detection by gray-scale and Doppler sonography in the absence of correlative findings on computed tomography

A Case of Portal Venous Gas Secondary to Acute Appendicitis Detected on Gray Scale Sonography but Not Computed Tomography

“…Only 7 similar cases were found in the literature, [13][14][15] suggesting that this is a rare finding. Although Doppler studies, which have been advocated as being more sensitive than gray scale sonography in detecting PVG, 15 were not performed in our case, the gray scale sonographic findings were characteristic of PVG.…”

“…Although Doppler studies, which have been advocated as being more sensitive than gray scale sonography in detecting PVG, 15 were not performed in our case, the gray scale sonographic findings were characteristic of PVG. 14,15 Thus, other differential diagnoses to echogenic foci moving in the portal vein, such as erythrocyte "rouleaux formations," 15 were not retained. This case provides further evidence that sonography, even when only gray scale imaging is performed, is more sensitive in the detection of PVG than CT.…”

“…Both computed tomography (CT) and gray scale or Doppler sonography contribute to the detection of PVG, with CT being more sensitive in identifying the underlying cause of PVG. 5 Recent reports suggest that sonography may be more sensitive in detecting PVG than CT. [13][14][15] We report a case of PVG detected on gray scale sonography that went undetected on CT. The cause of PVG in this case was acute appendicitis, which to our knowledge has never been reported in the literature.…”

Portal gas in a patient with acute obstructive cholangitis: report of a case with emphasis on US findings

“…6,9,10,15,21,22 The FFT signal of portal gas is the consequence of an artifact. A large difference in acoustic impedance between portal gas and surrounding blood in the portal vein creates a very strong sound refl ection, which is Doppler shifted when gas bubbles pass through the axis of the US beam.…”

Portal gas in a diabetic patient under pharmacotherapy with an alpha-glucosidase inhibitor: report of a case with emphasis on US findings

“…Regardless of the causal disease, the US findings of portal gas are (a) presence of high-echo spots flowing with the portal vein (B-mode) and (b) sharp, bidirectional, spiky waveform obtained from these echo spots (FFT) [6,9,10,15,21,22,[30][31][32].…”