 Study Group -We screened a population of 581 consecutive patients with cirrhosis who were scheduled to undergo upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. Exclusion criteria included inability to provide consent, patients who had previously undergone liver transplantation, previous portosystemic shunt procedure, or had a recent history 7 days of upper gastrointestinal bleeding . In addition, patients with renal insufficiency defined as a serum creatinine of 1.7 mgdL in non-diabetics or 1.5 mgdL in diabetics were excluded given concerns regarding the requirement of intravenous contrast during CT. Approximately 300 patients met inclusion criteria for screening for esophageal varices. Patients who had endoscopic variceal therapy n19 were also screened and 10 patients were included in the study to determine the role of CT imaging in determining the presence of varices in this group of patients. The last endoscopic therapy session in this group was greater than four weeks prior to the CT scan in order to eliminate any potential radiological artifact from the endoscopic treatment. Patients who met inclusion criteria n300 but declined entry into the study cited either scheduling conflicts n142,or fear of radiation n24 . The diagnosis of cirrhosis in the 134 patients who consented to the study was based on histology N 76; or the presence of ascites, thrombocytopenia or splenomegaly combined with low serum albumin 3.4 gdL and prolongation of the prothrombin time INR 1.3 with compatible abdominal imaging N 58. No endoscopies were performed purely for research purposes. Written informed consent was obtained from all patients who were enrolled into the study. Of the 134 patients who consented, 102 completed both endoscopic and CT examinations. 