Abstract: Objectiv The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of color Doppler ultrasound in predicting esophageal varices （EV） in patients with hepatitis B-induced liver cirrhosis （LC）. Methods Seventy-five patients with hepatitis B-induced LC and twenty-five healthy individuals were recruited in this study and all of them underwent gastroscopy and color Doppler ultrasonography to calculate the portal hemodynamic parameters. Results 56 patients with LC were found having and 19 having not EV in our series by gastroscopy; the diameters of portal veins in patients with and without EV were （13.7±3.2） mm and （12.1±3.2） mm,significantly larger than [（10.9±3.0）mm,P<0.05] in the control,the portal vein blood flow velocities were （9.3±2.1） cm/s and （13.6±2.7） cm/s,respectively,significantly slower than[（17.7±2.4） cm/s,P<0.05] in the control,and the portal vein blood flow volume were（1054.3±336.8） ml/min and（921.6±327.5） ml/min,respectively,significantly higher than [（832.5±234.1） ml/min,P<0.05] in the control;the incidence of reverse hepatic blood flow in left gastric vein in patients with EV was 80.4%,significantly higher than 0.0%（P<0.05） in patients without;the sensitivity was 78.6%,the specificity was 79.0%,the positive predictive value was 91.7% and the negative predictive value was 55.6% when the portal vein blood flow volume equal to 1000 ml/min as the cut-off-value in predicting the existence of EV. Conclusion The check-up of hemodynamics index of portal vein by color Doppler ultrasound might help predict the existence and degrees of EV in patients with hepatitis B-induced LC,which warrants further investigation.

Key words: Liver cirrhosis, Esophageal varices, Color Doppler ultrasound, Diagnosis