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Hepatomegaly

 

 
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Hepatomegaly
 
 
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Hepatomegaly is the condition of having an enlarged liver
Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, a few of which are detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion....
. It is a nonspecific medical sign having many causes, which can broadly be broken down into infection
Infection

An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host resources to multiply ....
, direct toxicity, hepatic tumours, or metabolic disorder. Often, hepatomegaly will present as an abdominal mass
Abdominal mass

An abdominal mass is any localized enlargement or swelling in the human abdomen. Depending on its location, the abdominal mass may be caused by an enlarged liver , enlarged spleen , protruding kidney, a pancreatic mass, a retroperitoneal mass , an abdominal aortic aneurysm, or various tumours, such as those caused by abdominal carcinomatosis...
. Depending on the cause, it may sometimes present along with jaundice
Jaundice

Jaundice, also known as icterus , is a yellowish discoloration of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclera , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia ....
.

r a thorough medical history
Medical history

The medical history or anamnesis J - jaundice T - tuberculosis H - hypertension & heart disease R - rheumatic fever...
 and physical examination
Physical examination

File:Reeve 978.jpgPhysical examination or clinical examination is the process by which a health care provider investigates the body of a patient for sign of disease....
, blood test
Blood test

A blood test is a medical laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick....
s should be drawn. An important series of blood tests are the liver function tests, which give a good impression of the patient's broad metabolic picture.

An ultrasound
Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing . Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 Hertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound....
 of the liver can reliably detect a dilated biliary duct system, which helps distinguish parenchyma
Parenchyma

Parenchyma is a term used to describe a bulk of a substance. It is used in different ways in animals and in plants.The term is New Latin, from Greek language parenkhuma, visceral flesh, from parenkhein, to pour in beside : para-, beside + en-, in + khein, to pour....
l liver disease from extrahepatic bile duct obstruction.






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Encyclopedia


Hepatomegaly is the condition of having an enlarged liver
Liver

The liver is a vital organ present in vertebrates and some other animals; it has a wide range of functions, a few of which are detoxification, protein synthesis, and production of biochemicals necessary for digestion....
. It is a nonspecific medical sign having many causes, which can broadly be broken down into infection
Infection

An infection is the detrimental colonization of a host organism by a foreign species. In an infection, the infecting organism seeks to utilize the host resources to multiply ....
, direct toxicity, hepatic tumours, or metabolic disorder. Often, hepatomegaly will present as an abdominal mass
Abdominal mass

An abdominal mass is any localized enlargement or swelling in the human abdomen. Depending on its location, the abdominal mass may be caused by an enlarged liver , enlarged spleen , protruding kidney, a pancreatic mass, a retroperitoneal mass , an abdominal aortic aneurysm, or various tumours, such as those caused by abdominal carcinomatosis...
. Depending on the cause, it may sometimes present along with jaundice
Jaundice

Jaundice, also known as icterus , is a yellowish discoloration of the skin, the conjunctival membranes over the sclera , and other mucous membranes caused by hyperbilirubinemia ....
.

Diagnosis

After a thorough medical history
Medical history

The medical history or anamnesis J - jaundice T - tuberculosis H - hypertension & heart disease R - rheumatic fever...
 and physical examination
Physical examination

File:Reeve 978.jpgPhysical examination or clinical examination is the process by which a health care provider investigates the body of a patient for sign of disease....
, blood test
Blood test

A blood test is a medical laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick....
s should be drawn. An important series of blood tests are the liver function tests, which give a good impression of the patient's broad metabolic picture.

An ultrasound
Ultrasound

Ultrasound is cyclic sound pressure with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing . Although this limit varies from person to person, it is approximately 20 Hertz in healthy, young adults and thus, 20 kHz serves as a useful lower limit in describing ultrasound....
 of the liver can reliably detect a dilated biliary duct system, which helps distinguish parenchyma
Parenchyma

Parenchyma is a term used to describe a bulk of a substance. It is used in different ways in animals and in plants.The term is New Latin, from Greek language parenkhuma, visceral flesh, from parenkhein, to pour in beside : para-, beside + en-, in + khein, to pour....
l liver disease from extrahepatic bile duct obstruction. Ultrasound can also detect the characteristic texture of a cirrhotic liver, and can guide fine needle aspiration of cyst
Cyst

A cyst is a closed sac having a distinct biological membrane and cell division on the nearby Biological tissue. It may contain air, fluids, or semi-solid material....
s, abscess
Abscess

An abscess is a collection of pus that has accumulated in a cavity formed by the tissue on the basis of an infection process or other foreign materials ....
es and tumours.

Computed tomography
Computed tomography

Computed tomography is a medical imaging method employing tomography. Geometry Processing is used to generate a stereoscopy of the inside of an object from a large series of two-dimensional X-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation....
 (CT) can help obtain more accurate anatomical
Anatomy

Anatomy is a branch of biology that is the consideration of the body plan. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy and plant anatomy ....
 information, and is unaffected by the obesity
Obesity

Obesity is a condition in which excess body fat has accumulated to an extent that health may be negatively affected. It is commonly defined as a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher....
 or the presence of bowel gases.

Common Causes


Infective

  • Glandular fever (Infectious mononucleosis) This is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV).
  • Hepatitis
    Hepatitis

    Hepatitis implies injury to the liver characterized by the presence of inflammatory cell s in the Tissue of the organ. The name is from ancient Greek hepar , the root being hepat- , meaning liver, and suffix -itis, meaning "inflammation" ....
     (Although not all hepatitis viruses cause hepatomegaly)
  • Liver abscess
    Liver abscess

    A liver abscess is a pus-filled mass inside or attached to the liver. Common causes are an abdominal infection such as appendicitis or diverticulitis....
    (pyogenic abscess and amoebic abscess)
  • Malaria
    Malaria

    Malaria is a Vector -borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. It is widespread in Tropics and subtropical regions, including parts of the Americas, Asia, and Africa....
  • Amoeba
    Amoeba

    Amoeba is a term used either to describe protists that move by crawling via pseudopods, or to refer to a genus that includes species that move by this mechanism....
     infections
  • Hydatid cyst
  • Leptospirosis
    Leptospirosis

    Leptospirosis is a infectious disease zoonotic disease caused by spirochaetes of the genus Leptospira that affects humans and a wide range of animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles....
  • Actinomycosis
    Actinomycosis

    Actinomycosis , is a rare infectious disease bacterial disease of humans generally caused by Actinomyces israelii, Actinomyces gerencseriae and Propionibacterium propionicus, though the condition is likely to be polymicrobial....


Neoplastic

  • Hemangioma
    Hemangioma

    A hemangioma is a congenital benign tumour or vascular malformation of endothelial cells .In infancy, it is the most common tumor....
    s
  • Hepatocellular carcinoma
    Hepatocellular carcinoma

    Hepatocellular carcinoma is a primary cancer of the liver. Most cases of HCC are secondary to either a viral hepatitis infection or cirrhosis ....
  • Myeloma
  • Leukemia
    Leukemia

    Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow and is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood Cell , usually white blood cells ....
  • Lymphoma
    Lymphoma

    Lymphoma is a type of cancer that originates in lymphocytes of the immune system. They often originate in lymph nodes, presenting as an enlargement of the node ....


Cirrhotic

  • Portal
  • Biliary
  • Cardiac
  • Haemochromatosis
    Haemochromatosis

    Haemochromatosis, also spelled hemochromatosis , also called hereditary haemochromatosis, siderophilia and bronze diabetes, is a hereditary disease characterized by excessive absorption of Human iron metabolism resulting in a pathological increase in total body iron stores....

Metabolic

  • Fatty infiltration
    Fatty liver

    Fatty liver, also known as fatty liver disease , steatorrhoeic hepatosis, or steatosis hepatitis, is a reversible condition where large vacuoles of triglyceride fat accumulate in hepatocyte via the process of steatosis....
  • Amyloidosis
    Amyloidosis

    In medicine, amyloidosis refers to a variety of conditions in which amyloid proteins are abnormally deposited in organ s and/or Tissue s. A protein is described as being amyloid if, due to an alteration in its secondary structure, it takes on a particular aggregated insoluble form similar to the beta-pleated sheet....
  • Gaucher's disease
    Gaucher's disease

    Gaucher's disease is the most common of the lysosomal storage diseases. It is caused by a deficiency of the enzyme glucocerebrosidase , leading to an accumulation of its substrate, the fatty substance cerebroside ....
  • Niemann Pick disease


Drugs and Toxins

  • alcoholism
    Alcoholism

    Alcoholism is a term with multiple and sometimes conflicting definitions to describe the detrimental effects of alcohol intake.In common and historic usage, alcoholism refers to any condition that results in the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages despite health problems and negative social consequences....
  • poison
    Poison

    In the context of biology, poisons are Chemical substance that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
    ing
  • drugs
    Drug use

    Drugs can be used in many different ways, as detailed below....


Congenital

  • Hemolytic anemia
    Hemolytic anemia

    Hemolytic anemia is anemia due to hemolysis, the abnormal breakdown of red blood cells either in the blood vessels or elsewhere in the body . It has numerous possible causes, ranging from relatively harmless to life-threatening....
  • Riedel's lobe
  • Polycystic disease
    Polycystic disease

    A polycystic disease is a disease that involves multiple cysts scattered throughout an organ, including:*Polycystic kidney disease*Polycystic liver disease...
  • Cori's disease


Others

  • Hunter syndrome
    Hunter syndrome

    Hunter syndrome, or mucopolysaccharoidosis Type II, is a lysosomal storage disease caused by a deficient enzyme, iduronate-2-sulfatase . The syndrome is named after physician Charles A....
  • Zellweger's syndrome
  • Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency
    Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency

    Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency is a rare metabolic disorder that prevents the body from converting certain fats called long-chain fatty acids into energy, particularly during periods without food....
  • Right ventricular failure


See also

  • Hepatosplenomegaly
    Hepatosplenomegaly

    Hepatosplenomegaly is the simultaneous enlargement of both the liver and the spleen . Hepatosplenomegaly can occur as the result of acute viral hepatitis, infectious mononucleosis or can be the sign of a serious and life threatening lysosomal storage disease....


External links

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