Ultrasound is currently considered one of the most informative and safe diagnostic methods. Ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract allows you to assess the size and shape of the organs of the abdominal cavity and intestines, analyze their structures and echogenicity, so that the doctor can identify abnormalities, make a diagnosis and prescribe adequate treatment.
The advantage of this method is its painlessness, availability, informativeness and high execution speed - from 20 minutes to half an hour.
Gastrointestinal Ultrasound Preparation: Adult Study
Most often, with the help of ultrasound, the condition of such organs as the liver, kidneys, pancreas, gallbladder and spleen is assessed. The intestines, due to the accumulation of gases, are usually examined using other methods, but sometimes the doctor may prescribe an ultrasound.
Indications for its implementation are both complaints of deterioration in well-being and pain in the abdomen, and various dyspeptic symptoms, including heaviness in the abdomen and increased gas formation in people who do noteat foods that cause flatulence.
Diet in preparation for ultrasound
Implies preparation for research and diet before ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract. Three days before the diagnostic procedure, you need to make adjustments to your diet to eliminate bloating and flatulence. For this reason, you can not use:
- wheat and rye bread, any sweet pastries;
- all types of cabbage;
- beans, peas and other legumes;
- sweet soda and regular mineral water;
- whole milk (especially if lactose intolerant);
- raw vegetables and fruits.
Featured Foods
When preparing for an ultrasound scan of the digestive tract, it is recommended to eat lean meat and fish, best boiled or steamed, rice and oatmeal porridge on the water, baked apples, vegetable puree soups (without cabbage, peas and other forbidden vegetables).
Food should be fractional. In preparation for the study of ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract, you need to drink 1.5 liters of water without gas per day, and coffee and tea will have to be abandoned, just like nicotine and chewing gum.
Other preparation features
A few hours before the ultrasound, you need to refrain from taking drugs such as aspirin, analgin and No-Shpa.
If the patient has difficulty emptying the bowels, preventive measures must be taken. 12 hours before the test, you need to drink a laxative orput a rectal suppository. But if this does not help, it is recommended to do an enema. In any case, the intestines must be empty.
Besides the laxative, care must be taken with other medicines. For some patients, in preparation for the study of ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract, before the procedure, doctors prescribe "Mezim" or "Festal" to enhance the secretory function, as well as enterosorbents like "Smecta" or "Enterosgel". You can also take activated charcoal, but it is considered less effective. All these drugs are drunk only as prescribed by a specialist!
If any studies of the gastrointestinal tract, such as gastrography or colonoscopy, were performed on the eve of the ultrasound, it is imperative to inform the specialist about this, since in such cases the results of the ultrasound may be unreliable.
Preparation for research in children
When examining a child, preparation for ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract is minimized. It all depends on the age of the child. For example, babies under 1 year old do not need to follow a diet, especially if they are breastfed, unless complementary foods are excluded, which can lead to gas formation (vegetable puree with broccoli). In this case, ultrasound should be carried out immediately before the next feeding, so that at least 2-4 hours have passed from the previous one).
Babies aged 1-3 years were not fed for 4 hours prior to this study. But children over 3 years old will have to do an ultrasound on an empty stomach, because fromAt least 6-8 hours must have passed since the last meal in time.
And in any case, implying ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract, in preparation for the study, it is not recommended to drink 1 hour before the procedure.
Ultrasound of the pancreas
Traditionally, the study of the pancreas is prescribed in the morning to do it on an empty stomach, when the patient has not yet had time to get hungry. However, patients with diabetes should never fast. Therefore, they are allowed something like a snack or a light breakfast - a few crackers and a cup of lightly sweetened tea to keep their blood sugar levels down.
The procedure is very simple. No effort is required from the patient. You just need to lie still on your back, relaxing the muscles of the abdominal wall. Sometimes the doctor may ask you to hold your breath for a few seconds or change your posture slightly so that it is more convenient for him to visualize the organ and surrounding tissues. In most cases, the procedure does not cause any discomfort. Although, of course, not everyone likes the gel used, it can improve the signal quality, so it's worth the patience.
Ultrasound is an absolutely safe procedure, it does not injure the patient, there are no restrictions on its implementation (unlike the same X-ray). Therefore, you can come for a second ultrasound in a week, and in a few days, if such a need suddenly arises.
Features of intestinal ultrasound in adults and children
There are two types of researchintestines:
- Transabdominal. It takes place within half an hour. The patient needs to lie on his back and bend his knees so that the abdominal wall relaxes. The doctor, as with any other type of ultrasound, will apply a special gel to the surface of the area being examined (in this case, the abdomen), which will improve the contact of the sensor with the skin and improve signal quality. After that, the ultrasound is performed in the usual way - the sensor moves across the abdomen, in some areas the specialist will slightly increase the pressure.
- Endorectal. This method uses a thin, characteristically shaped transducer that the specialist inserts directly into the rectum. There is no need to be afraid - there will be no painful sensations, except for a slight discomfort. In order to improve visualization, a sterile fluid is injected through the catheter of the described transducer. In this research method, it acts as a contrast. Then the specialist looks through the intestines, each petoi. At the final stage, an inspection is carried out again, but after the liquid has been removed. With the help of the endorectal method, doctors have the opportunity to quickly determine the location of the pathological focus, so it is used when there is a reasonable suspicion of its presence, it remains only to find out the location.
It should be noted that children can only be examined transabdominally, that is, externally. And, as mentioned above, their preparatory stage is reduced to a minimum.
Transcript of results
Of course, the interpretation of the results canbe performed only by a qualified person. And even in this case, errors are possible, for example, if the patient is very obese, if he moved during the examination, if there was no bowel movement the day before, or even if there is increased gas formation (in order to avoid this, a diet is prescribed).
Ultrasound of the pancreas
Proper preparation for ultrasound of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas is simply necessary. The study helps to detect the presence of inflammatory processes or various neoplasms. But in order to understand if there are any deviations, you need to know what indicators are considered normal.
So, the size of the head should be up to 3.5 cm, and the body - up to 2.5 cm, the diameter of the duct can be in the range of 1.5-2 mm. The contours of the organ should be seen as even and clear, the structure should be homogeneous. There should be no growths under normal circumstances.
An increase in the size of the pancreas relative to the norm may indicate a chronic inflammatory disease of the organ. In such cases, ultrasound also shows that the duct is expanding. In general, to decipher the results, the size of the gland, its volumes play a very important role. For example, if an organ increases unevenly, then this may indicate the appearance of neoplasms. If, however, during the ultrasound, areas are found whose structure differs from normal tissues, then this may be a sign of the appearance of a cyst or abscess.
It is important that the clinician be able to determine sufficient echogenicity. If this indicator is below this level, this will indicate that the throughput of the pancreas has decreased, which may indicate an acute inflammatory process - pancreatitis. Sometimes a decrease in echogenicity is not considered a pathology. In people over the age of 50, this occurs naturally due to the growth of fat cells, so the doctor should take into account the age of the patient when making a diagnosis.
Intestinal ultrasound
This study analyzes the following indicators:
- Location of the rectum or other section relative to the bladder and uterus (in women) or the prostate and seminal vesicles (in the stronger sex).
- The length of the various sections of the intestine (each has its own standards, which are well known to specialists). On average, the length of the lower rectum, visualized by the external method, that is, through the abdomen, is 5 cm, and the length of the middle is 6-10 cm.
- The thickness of the intestinal wall and the number of layers in it.
- Echogenicity of the intestinal wall.
- Structure of surrounding tissues and state of regional lymph nodes.
When conducting an external ultrasound, you can check only two layers of the wall (its thickness should be 9 mm), to see the smooth outer contours of the intestine. The lymph nodes are not visible. With an endorectal examination, it will already be possible to check the five layers of the intestinal wall, evaluate the internal contours and lymph nodes.
Deviations from the norm may indicate the presence of inflammatory processes or neoplasms, but in any case,in addition to ultrasound, doctors prescribe other diagnostic procedures and tests to get a complete picture.
