Abdominal Ultrasound

Ultrasound is a safe procedure with no contraindications.

Your healthcare practitioner may order this test in the following conditions:

• To determine the cause of the following symptoms: 
  • Abdominal pain 
  • Swollen belly 
  • Repeated vomiting 
  • Abnormal results in liver function test or kidney function tests
• To check for damage to your abdominal organs after an injury 
• To look for the cause of a fever 
• To check the causes of kidney infections
• To detect ascites (accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity)
• To identify the cause of swelling in an abdominal organ
• To check for stones in kidney or gall bladder
• To detect or monitor tumours

A whole abdomen ultrasound is also used to check the growth and development of the baby inside the womb during pregnancy. Sometimes, an ultrasound procedure is used to ensure proper placement of needles (for a biopsy) or catheters.

Your healthcare practitioner may advise you to wear loose-fitting clothes or you may have to wear a hospital gown for the test.

The preparation for the test depends on the area to be examined.

If an ultrasound of the kidney is required, you may be advised to skip food for nearly eight to 12 hours prior to the test. This is mainly done to prevent the build-up of gas in intestines, which may affect the results of the test. Also, your doctor may instruct you to drink four to six glasses of liquid at least an hour before the ultrasound. It will fill your bladder and help in obtaining better images. 

For an ultrasound of the liver, spleen, gall bladder and pancreas, fasting of eight to 12 hours is required. It is also advisable to avoid fatty meal on the evening before the test.

The following is the procedure for a whole abdomen ultrasound:

• You will be asked to lie on an examination table. 
• A technician (sonographer) will first rub a clear, water-based gel on your abdomen. 
• He/she will then move the transducer back and forth over the area to be examined. 
• You’ll be able to see the images of your organs on a computer screen attached to the probe. The technician or doctor may take multiple images of the area to be examined.
• After the scan, he/she will wipe off the gel from your abdomen.

It will not take more than 30 minutes for scanning and imaging.

An ultrasound scan is not painful. However, if there is tenderness on the area that is being examined, you may feel slight pain or pressure from the transducer. Also, the gel may feel wet and cold.

The following conditions may be diagnosed using a whole abdomen ultrasound:

• Infections
• Colitis
• Ascites
• Gallstones 
• Hernia
• Kidney stones 
• Appendicitis 
• Abdominal aortic aneurysm (ballooning of aorta)
• Abscess 
• Cholecystitis (swelling and irritation of the gall bladder)
• Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas)
• Tumours 
• Cirrhosis
• Obstruction of bile ducts 
• Spleen enlargement
• Enlarged liver
• Portal hypertension 

 The benefits of the ultrasound test are as follows:

• It is non-invasive 
• It does not use radiation and is hence a comparatively safe imaging procedure 
• It gives clear images of soft tissues that may not be observed in x-ray 

An ultrasound possesses no known risk to anybody.

You can resume your usual activities right after the test.

There is no specific test that your doctor may ask you to get after a whole abdomen ultrasound. Any additional test would depend on the condition to be diagnosed. For example, the tests that may be performed for pancreatitis are as follows:

• Blood/stool/urine test
• CT scan of abdomen
• MRI
• Radionucleotide scan
• Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography
• Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
• Stool elastase test

Disclaimer: All results must be clinically correlated with the patient’s complaints to make a complete and accurate diagnosis. The above information is provided from a purely educational point of view and is in no way a substitute for medical advice by a qualified doctor.