Abdominal ultrasound scan

An abdominal ultrasound scan is an imaging procedure that examines the abdominal cavity and pelvic organs.
It does not focus on the stomach and intestines, but examines the liver, gall bladder, pancreas, spleen and kidneys, as well as the bladder, uterus, ovaries and prostate in the pelvic cavity.
Abdominal ultrasound can also look at the larger abdominal blood vessels and lymph nodes adjacent to the main abdominal artery.

Abdominal ultrasound is often used to determine the cause of abdominal pain, but it can also be used to detect gallstones, kidney stones, urinary stones and enlarged organs.
In addition, abdominal ultrasound can be used to detect problems such as liver metastases from cancer, abdominal fluid or pus, and haemorrhages.

During the examination, the patient lies on his back on the bed, with his abdomen free of clothing.
The skin is smeared with a jelly-like gel that helps the ultrasound waves to travel.
The probe is placed on the skin and pressed lightly on the abdomen.
The specialist moves the probe to form an image of the various organs.

The specialist may sometimes ask the patient to take a deep breath and hold it in, or to turn sideways and raise their arms above their head.
The image on the screen can be frozen to allow the organs and any lesions to be measured and, if necessary, stored digitally or on paper.
At the end of the examination, the gel can be easily wiped off.
Any gel that may have adhered to clothing can be easily washed off.

An abdominal ultrasound, especially if the biliary tract and pancreas are being examined, is successful if the patient has an empty stomach.
It is usually advisable to eat last 4-5 hours before the scan.
However, the patient can take their regular medication with a sip of water and this will not interfere with the ultrasound scan.

Examination of the bladder and surrounding organs is effective if the bladder is well filled with urine.
Therefore, plenty of fluid (preferably non-carbonated) is recommended 1-2 hours before the test.

Abdominal ultrasound can be used at any age as it uses sound waves that are not ionised.
The current scientific view is that it has no known harmful effects on the living organism.
Moreover, it can be repeated several times if necessary and has no side effects.

The abdominal ultrasound itself is painless.
However, if you are looking for a cause of abdominal pain (for example, gall bladder inflammation), you may find that the pressure of the probe on the abdominal wall is uncomfortable.

Ultrasound is the gentlest test with no adverse effects.
The ultrasound machine ‘s transducer emits high-frequency sound waves (ultrasound) above the range of sounds audible to the human ear.
Some of these sound waves are reflected and scattered from different surfaces, while others are absorbed.
The reflected waves are detected by the scanning head, as in radar, and converted into electrical signals, which are then converted into an image on the monitor.
While ultrasound easily penetrates liquids and solid organs, it bounces off, for example, gallstones, gases in the intestines and bones, so that the areas behind them can be seen as so-called “bubble zones”.
“The ultrasound can not be used to give an opinion.
Most devices are nowadays not only capable of examining a single area of the body, but different probes may be needed for different examinations, operating at different frequencies and of different shapes and sizes.
These devices can be used to examine the breasts, salivary glands in the neck, blood vessels, thyroid gland, inguinal veins and surrounding lymph nodes, eyes, testicles, and almost all skeletal muscles and joints.
Even the brain can be examined in babies with an unclosed incision.
(source of parts of the text: hazipatika.hu)