Budd-Chiari Syndrome: From Clinical to Ultrasonic Diagnosis

Budd-Chiari Syndrome (BCS) is a rare but specific vascular disease. However, the first symptoms of BCS in clinical can be various, such as abdominal pain, lower limb swelling, liver enlargement, etc. BCS is easily misdiagnosed as various diseases which delays the optimal duration of treatment and leads to serious consequences. Ultrasound is usually the initial examination for such patients. There are some specific ultrasonographic manifestations of hepatic vein and inferior vena cava in BCS. However, if ultrasound doctors are not familiar with these specific and non-specific signs, it is easy to point the diagnosis to other diseases, such as cirrhosis, varicose veins of lower limbs, et al. Therefore, it is necessary to summarize the clinical manifestations and ultrasonic features of BSC so as to improve the sensitivity of ultrasound physicians to detect such diseases and improve the diagnostic accuracy.