page_title: Abdominal ultrasonography
section_title: Liver
hierarchical_section_title: Abdominal ultrasonography / Medical uses / Liver
caption_attribution_description: English: edit Abdominal ultrasonography of a normal liver of a 31-year old man. It is in a sagittal plane in the midclavicular line, with the following measurements: Maximum dimension Cranio-caudal dimension Ventro-dorsal dimension (depth) Reference: Christoph F. Dietrich, Carla Serra, Maciej Jedrzejczyk (2010-07-28). Ultrasound of the liver - EFSUMB – European Course Book.
context_page_description: Abdominal ultrasonography is a form of medical ultrasonography to visualise abdominal anatomical structures. It uses transmission and reflection of ultrasound waves to visualise internal organs through the abdominal wall. For this reason, the procedure is also called a transabdominal ultrasound, in contrast to endoscopic ultrasound, the latter combining ultrasound with endoscopy through visualize internal structures from within hollow organs.
  Abdominal ultrasound examinations are performed by gastroenterologists or other specialists in internal medicine, radiologists, or sonographers trained for this procedure.
context_section_description: In patients with deranged liver function tests, ultrasound may show increased liver size (hepatomegaly), increased reflectiveness (which might, for example, indicate cholestasis), gallbladder or bile duct diseases, or a tumor in the liver.
  Ultrasonography of liver tumors involves two stages: detection and characterization.  Tumor detection is based on the performance of the method and should include morphometric information (three axes dimensions, volume) and topographic information (number, location specifying liver segment and lobe/lobes). The specification of these data is important for staging liver tumors and prognosis.  Tumor characterization is a complex process based on a sum of criteria leading towards tumor nature definition. Often, other diagnostic procedures, especially interventional ones, are no longer necessary. Tumor characterization using the ultrasound method will be based on the following elements: consistency (solid, liquid, mixed), echogenicity, structure appearance (homogeneous or heterogeneous), delineation from adjacent liver parenchyma (capsular, imprecise), elasticity, posterior acoustic enhancement effect, the relation with neighboring organs or structures (displacement, invasion), vasculature (presence and characteristics on Doppler ultrasonography and contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS).
caption: Ultrasonography of the liver with some standard measurements.[6]
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