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Ultrasound scan of liver and pancreas - anyone had this?

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Retired Moderator
Messages
4,386
Location
Suffolk, UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
From other threads there has been a discussion about the link between Insulin Resistance (IR) and fatty liver and pancreas.

Various searches suggest that probably the easiest way to detect fat in the liver and pancreas is an ultrasound scan.

Noting that I have never been offered such a scan, I wondered if anyone had been given such a scan either NHS or private, and if so what the results were.
 
I've often wondered how my liver looks... still have a band of tubbiness hiding my six-pack.... but the rest seems pretty lean... scrawny even, despite my morning exercises and walks.
 
I should imagine anyone that’s had a gallbladder scan has at least had a cursory check of the adjoining organs. I know they commented they had checked around mine and all looked “ok”. But this was before diabetes and I knew nothing of nafld and wasn’t so sceptical of the famous “ok” as I am now. Ok means many things short of deaths door.
 
I haven't had a liver scan but my son did. He had a very high ALT liver count after glandular fever when he was 21. The doctor was very concerned but the scan showed iit was 'only ' fatty liver.
 
I've had a 2 or 3 liver scans over the years, my alt tests run slightly high but are very stable - the scans showed I had no fatty liver disease - Doctor said some people just run naturally higher and as there was no change in 10 years and no sign of fatty liver on scans there is nothing to worry about. Every time a new GP looks at my results they want to send me for a scan - until I say read back on my notes and you'll see blah blah blah lol
 
zand said:
I haven't had a liver scan but my son did. He had a very high ALT liver count after glandular fever when he was 21. The doctor was very concerned but the scan showed iit was 'only ' fatty liver.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
At least we know of someone who had a fatty liver identified by ultrasound.
Not that this is a good thing for the patient, but shows it can be done.
Hope he is OK now.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Thanks.
At least we know of someone who had a fatty liver identified by ultrasound.
Not that this is a good thing for the patient, but shows it can be done.
Hope he is OK now.
Click to expand...

£300 will buy an abdominal ultrasound at The Spire group. That tends to cover liver, spleen, gallbladder, pancreas, and a scout out for aortic aneurisms if there is any family history.
 
My two measures of improved liver health are my ALT which was consistently high prior to my diabetes diagnosis and is now normal. Plus my hubby’s all singing all dancing Tanita scales which give me a visceral fat score of 8, anything under 12 is ok apparently. I wished I measured myself on them before my weight loss!
 

I forgot about my visceral fat. Mine measures 6 on my Tanita scales, with a rare drop to 5 for some reason, then back up to 6 again. The information I have is up to 12 is normal, but there again, how do they measure normal! I have no idea what it was when I was diagnosed T2. My ALT has always been ideal in the 20's.
 
My bloodwork came back abnormal, and I had pain in that area, so I had an ultrasound. They saw something weird, and they assumed my entire liver was tumerous. Finding out I had T2 at the same time took a back seat, as I thought I had just a few more weeks to live anyway. It took an MRI and a CT scan to tell my specialist that it was extremely dense fatty liver disease, not cancer. So an ultrasound alone may not be conclusive, though it can show anomalies.

T2 and non alcoholic fatty liver disease are both on the Metabolic Syndrome list. If you have one, you often also have the other, paired with high cholesterol and high bloodpressure. Kind if part and parcel.
 
LittleGreyCat said:
I wondered if anyone had been given such a scan either NHS or private, and if so what the results were.
Click to expand...

I've had scans because my liver function deteriorated after taking Rosiglitazone. The scans confirmed that there were no signs of cirrhosis, that the liver looked like liver should (no lumps, bumps, scars). and that I had Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver.
 
So you are proof that not all T2s have a fatty liver at diagnosis...
 
LittleGreyCat said:
Thanks.
At least we know of someone who had a fatty liver identified by ultrasound.
Not that this is a good thing for the patient, but shows it can be done.
Hope he is OK now.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, well yes, he appears healthy, but hasn't had further blood tests because the docs don't think fatty liver is worth monitoring even in one so young, so I have no idea if his liver has recovered or not. He tries to exercise when he can (training for marathons) and eats low carb from time to time but drifts away from it. He rarely drinks alcohol nowadays.
 
I was diagnosed T2 five years ago. About two years before I had an ultrasound scan and fatty liver was detected. The doctor recommended dieting which I ignored. Very little information was given to me so I blame myself and the Doctor for the T2
 
I had an ultra sound scan a couple of months ago, it showed enlarged fatty liver, my liver looked very dark brown on the screen as opposed to my kidneys which were quite light in colour, my doctor said that there is not much more I can do about diet (have been low carb, 20 gms/day, for two years now, but should cut back/ give up alcohol !!! I drink a couple of glasses red wine most evenings, so I'm on lime and soda now with the odd glass of red to be sociable on occasions.
 
zand said:
So you are proof that not all T2s have a fatty liver at diagnosis...
Click to expand...

Not really. I only started measuring my visceral fat after I had lost a load of weight. I have no idea what it was when I was diagnosed.
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Not really. I only started measuring my visceral fat after I had lost a load of weight. I have no idea what it was when I was diagnosed.
Click to expand...
Well your ALT count was brilliant so the liver must have been working OK ?
 
My ALT count has been brilliant consistently since stopping the seroxat, long before my diabetes was diagnosed (I was, unknown to me, pre-diabetic by then). Does a brilliantly normal ALT count mean there is no fatty live disease?
 
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