Sonographic Assessment of Maternal Portal Vein Diameter in Healthy Pregnancy in South-South Nigeria

Background: The portal vein is one of the main sources of blood supply of the liver. About three quarters of the liver blood flow is from the portal vein.

Objectives: To assess the mean normal portal vein diameter in healthy pregnant women, and correlate our observation with maternal age, parity and other baseline characteristics.

Subjects and Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted at the Obstetrics and Radiology Units of the two tertiary health facilities, one secondary facility and one radio-diagnostic facility in Bayelsa State, South-South Nigeria, between April, 2022 and December, 2022. Data analysis was done using Statistical Product and Service Solutions for Windows® version 25, SPSS Inc.; Chicago, USA. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentages) and Pearson product moment correlation were used for the analysis. The level of significance was set at p<0.05.

Results: Mean portal vein diameter was 10.43 ± 1.58 mm, and ranged from 7.5 mm to 14.0 mm. Maternal age (ɼ = 0.51; p – 0.001) and parity (ɼ = 0.47; p – 0.001) correlated fairly strong and significantly with portal vein diameter. Gestational age (ɼ = 0.21; p – 0.001) and estimated foetal weight (ɼ = 0.16; p – 0.001) were significantly related to the portal vein diameter.

Conclusion: This research has established baseline values for normal range of PV diameter in healthy pregnant women in the South-South region of Nigeria, and also revealed significant correlation of PV diameter with age, parity, gestational age and estimated foetal weight.