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Purpose: A prospective study was carried out to determine the diagnostic value of velocity histograms of hepatic veins in patients with liver cirrhosis and healthy subjects., Methods: The hepatic veins of ten healthy subjects and ten patients with liver cirrhosis were examined by the Doppler method. The velocity histogram measures the velocity variation at a defined area in the duplex tracing. Within this tracing, the peak, mean, mode and velocity range were measured., Results: A velocity range of 0.02 +/- 0.015 m/s was examined in healthy subjects, and a range of 0.06 +/- 0.013 was examined in liver cirrhosis patients (p < 0.001). The other measurement options showed no significant changes between the healthy subjects and the liver cirrhosis patients (p < 0.05)., Conclusions: Until now, differentiation of the hepatic vein tracings was possible only on a qualitative basis. With the assessment of the velocity range it is possible to obtain a more objective differentiation between the duplex tracing in hepatic veins of liver cirrhosis patients and healthy subjects.