Abdominal Ultrasound

Abdominal ultrasound uses painless sound waves to examine the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, and other organs inside your belly. Experienced sonographer Joyce Morris, RVT, and her colleagues at JerBear Imaging in Brownwood, Texas, specialize in ultrasound diagnostic imaging. Using cutting-edge abdominal ultrasound, they can determine the cause of symptoms like pain, swelling, and bleeding to ensure you get the best treatment. Call JerBear Imaging or request a consultation online today to benefit from an expertly performed abdominal ultrasound.

What is an abdominal ultrasound?

Ultrasound imaging (sonography) uses sound wave technology to create pictures of organs, tissues, blood vessels, and abnormal masses or tumors.

When sound waves strike an object, they bounce back or echo. Measuring the echoing sound waves enables the receiving computer software to determine how far away an object is and its:

• Size
• Shape
• Consistency
• Solidity
• Fluid content

Abdominal ultrasound produces images of the organs and tissues in your abdomen.

Why might I need an abdominal ultrasound?

Your health care provider might order an abdominal diagnostic ultrasound if you have symptoms of conditions affecting the kidneys, liver, gallbladder, bile ducts, pancreas, or spleen. Ultrasound can help diagnose numerous symptoms and conditions, including:

• Abdominal pain
• Distention (enlargement)
• Abnormal liver function
• Enlarged organs
• Kidney stones
• Gallstones

Doppler technology may form part of an abdominal ultrasound examination in some patients.

Doppler ultrasound allows your doctor to view and assess how well blood flows through your arteries and veins. It may be useful for diagnosing problems like an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), where a dangerous blood-filled balloon develops in the major abdominal artery.

Pregnancy ultrasounds are another form of abdominal ultrasound. JerBear Imaging uses medical 2D and elective 3D/4D ultrasounds.

How do I prepare for an abdominal ultrasound?

The preparations you need to make depend on why you’re having an ultrasound. Liver, pancreas, gallbladder, and spleen ultrasounds require that you eat a fat-free meal the evening before your scan and avoid consuming any other food for eight to 12 hours.

For a kidney ultrasound, your provider may ask you to drink four to six glasses of water an hour before your scan to fill your bladder. They may also ask you to avoid eating for eight to 12 hours before your abdominal ultrasound to prevent gas buildup in your intestines.

What happens during an abdominal ultrasound?

For most abdominal ultrasounds, you lie on a treatment table in a private room. Joyce applies a slippery gel to your skin and places the transducer (a handheld scanning device) on it. The gel enables sound waves to bounce back and forth between your organs and the transducer.

The machine’s computer creates the image based on:

• How loud the returning sound waves are
• Their frequency
• How long it takes a signal to travel back to the transducer
• What structure or tissue the sound waves travel through

You’ll see the ultrasound image on a video monitor as Joyce moves the transducer over your skin. After your abdominal ultrasound, you can continue with your daily tasks as usual.

Call JerBear Imaging to arrange an abdominal ultrasound or request an appointment online today.