Perihepatic lymphadenopathy in children with chronic viral hepatitis
Article Category: Original paper
Published Online: Sep 13, 2016
Page range: 137 - 150
Received: Feb 04, 2015
Accepted: Apr 21, 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15557/jou.2015.0012
Keywords
© 2015 Dagmar Schreiber-Dietrich et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Objective
To assess whether lymph node enlargement in the hepatoduodenal ligament occurs in children with chronic viral hepatitis B and C in comparison to healthy controls.
Subject and methods
In 49 patients with chronic viral hepatitis (38 with chronic hepatitis B, 11 with chronic hepatitis C, 31 male, 18 female; age range 1 to 17 years), and in 51 healthy controls (25 male, 26 female; age range 4 to 16 years), the total perihepatic lymph node volume was assessed using transabdominal ultrasonography as previously described in adult patients.
Results
Adequate visualization of the liver hilum was achieved in 46/49 (94%) pediatric patients with chronic viral hepatitis and in 46/51 (90%) pediatric healthy controls. In patients with adequate liver hilum visualization, enlarged perihepatic lymph nodes (longitudinal diameter >14 mm) were detected in 32/46 (70%) patients with chronic viral hepatitis and in 5/46 (11%) healthy controls. The total perihepatic lymph nodes volume [mean ± SD] was 1.0 ± 1.2 mL (0.1–5.4 mL) in patients with chronic viral hepatitis and 0.1 ± 0.1 mL (0.0–0.4 mL) in healthy controls (
Conclusion
Transabdominal ultrasound can detect lymph nodes within the hepatoduodenal ligament not only in adults but also in children. Paediatric patients with chronic viral hepatitis have significantly enlarged perihepatic lymph nodes compared to controls. Therefore, sonographic assessment of perihepatic lymphadenopathy might be a non-invasive diagnostic tool to screen paediatric patients for chronic viral hepatitis.