1.   Blood supply to the vital organs can be more accurately measured by a central venous pressure line.

2.   In the intensive care unit the patient was managed with central venous pressure monitoring and direct arterial pressure monitoring.

3.   Twenty five patients with acute liver failure were measured for hepatic venous pressure gradient as an index of portal pressure during the course of a transjugular liver biopsy.

4.   Portal pressure was estimated from the hepatic venous pressure gradient -- that is, the difference between wedged hepatic venous pressure and free hepatic venous pressure.

5.   All patients but one had an increased hepatic venous pressure gradient.

6.   There was a direct correlation between the degree of reticulin collapse and the hepatic venous pressure gradient.

7.   In fact, all but one of the patients studied had a hepatic venous pressure gradient above the normal values, thus indicating intrahepatic sinusoidal portal hypertension.

8.   The correlation between the area of reticulin collapse, however, and hepatic venous pressure gradient, although statistically significant, was poor.

9.   This may indicate that other factors also play an important role in increasing hepatic venous pressure gradient in acute liver failure.

10.   Measurements of hepatic venous pressure gradient with the balloon occlusion technique, however, estimate the sinusoidal perfusion pressure in a relatively large area of the liver.