Abstract
Colonic vascular lesions were studied endoscopically in 49 patients with liver cirrhosiscompared with 50 controls. The characteristic findings of colonoscopy in cirrhotic patientsand their incidence rates were:tree like-dilated vessels, 87.8%; coil like-fine vessels, 34.7%; vascular ectasia-like lesions, 44.9%; rectal varices, 20.4%. The prevalence ofeach finding was significantly higher in cirrhotic patients than controls. There was anassociation between the prevalence of vascular ectasia-like lesions and the presence ofesophageal varices, the degree of esophageal varices, and the presence of portal hypertensive gastropathy. From these findings, it is suggested that a patient having tree like-dilated vessels andat least one of three other findings, coil-like fine vessels, vascular ectasia-like lesions andrectal varices, should be diagnosed as portal hypertensive colopathy. To investigatewhether portal hypertensive colopathy that we defined has a relation to portal hypertension, clinical study was performed prospectively in 71 patients with chronic liver disease.Portal hypertensive colopathy was present in 35 patients, we found that an associationbetween the presence Qf portal hypertensive colopathy and the presence and form ofesophageal varices, and the presence of portal hypertensive gastropathy. These resultssuggest that this colopathy is related with portal hyperten, sion, which could support ourproposal of definition of portal hypertensive colopathy.
