Articles

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More than 200 results
Article

AIDS cholangiopathy

AIDS cholangiopathy refers to an acalculous, secondary opportunistic cholangitis that occurs in AIDS patients as a result of immunosuppression 1.  Pathology Characterised by multiple irregular strictures essentially indistinguishable from primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). There are four pa...
Article

Accessory right inferior hepatic vein

An accessory right inferior hepatic vein is the most common variation of the hepatic veins, and may be multiple 1. It is present in up to 48% of the population and drains the posteroinferior part of the right lobe directly into the inferior vena cava (IVC) 1-3. Variations in hepatic vascular an...
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Acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis (plural: pancreatitides) is an acute inflammation of the pancreas and potentially life-threatening. Terminology Two subtypes of acute pancreatitis are described in the Revised Atlanta Classification 1:  interstitial oedematous pancreatitis the vast majority (90-95%) most ...
Article

Budd-Chiari syndrome

Budd-Chiari syndrome, also known as hepatic venous outflow obstruction (HVOO), refers to the clinical picture that occurs when there is partial or complete obstruction of the hepatic veins.  There is no clear consensus regarding the number of occluded veins, some authors claim that there should...
Article

Chemotherapy induced cholangitis

Chemotherapy induced cholangitis is caused when intra-arterial chemotherapy is introduced to treat liver metastases. This causes strictures of the common hepatic duct and main ducts, but spares distal and proximal (i.e. common bile duct and intrahepatic ducts).  Radiographic features similar t...
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Cholangiocarcinoma

Cholangiocarcinomas (commonest type of bile duct cancers) are malignant epithelial tumours arising from the biliary tree, excluding the gallbladder or ampulla of Vater. Cholangiocarcinoma is the third most common primary hepatobiliary malignancy after hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and gallbladd...
Article

Choledochal cyst

Choledochal cysts represent congenital cystic dilatations of the biliary tree. Diagnosis relies on excluding other conditions as a cause of biliary duct dilatation, e.g. tumour, gallstone, inflammation. Epidemiology Choledochal cysts are rare, with an overall incidence of 1:100,000-150,000. Th...
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Cirrhosis

Cirrhosis (plural: cirrhoses) is the common endpoint of a wide variety of chronic liver disease processes which cause hepatocellular necrosis. Cirrhosis can be diagnosed with ultrasound, CT, and MRI, and these imaging modalities can also be used to evaluate for possible complications of cirrhosi...
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Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis (CF), also called mucoviscidosis, is an autosomal recessive genetic disease that affects the exocrine function of the lungs, liver, pancreas, small bowel, sweat glands, and urogenital system. This article is a general discussion of the disease. Each organ system are discussed se...
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Cystic lesions of the pancreas (differential)

The differential for cystic lesions of the pancreas includes: unilocular pancreatic pseudocyst intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) serous cystadenoma uncommonly uni/macrolocular simple pancreatic cyst cystic neuroendocrine tumour of the pancreas diffuse pancreatic cysts pancre...
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Focal hepatic steatosis

Focal hepatic steatosis, also known as focal hepatosteatosis or (erroneously) focal fatty infiltration, represents small areas of liver steatosis. In many cases, the phenomenon is believed to be related to the haemodynamics of a third inflow.   Epidemiology Essentially the same as those that c...
Article

Gallstone ileus

Gallstone ileus is an uncommon cause of mechanical small bowel obstruction. It is a rare complication of chronic cholecystitis 7 and occurs when a gallstone passes through a fistula between the gallbladder and small bowel before becoming impacted at the ileocaecal valve.  Epidemiology Although...
Article

Hypertension

Hypertension refers to an increase in blood pressure above the 'normal' for the age, sex, and ethnicity of the patient. This can be specified according to the vascular system involved. Although generally when it is not specified it is assumed to refer to the systemic type. systemic hypertension...
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Haemochromatosis

Haemochromatosis is an iron overload disorder characterised by a progressive increase in total body iron stores and deposition of iron in some non-reticuloendothelial system (RES) body organs which results in some instances of organ dysfunction. This article focuses on the general principles of...
Article

Hepatic adenoma

Hepatic adenomas, also referred to as hepatocellular adenomas, are benign, generally hormone-induced, liver tumours. The tumours are usually solitary, have a predilection for haemorrhage, and must be differentiated from other focal liver lesions. Epidemiology The incidence of hepatic adenomas ...
Article

Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome

Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome (SOS), previously known as hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD), is a condition arising from occlusion of hepatic venules. Clinical presentation right upper quadrant pain painful hepatomegaly ascites abnormal liver function tests Pathology Toxic injury to l...
Article

Hepatocellular carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), also called hepatoma, is the most common primary malignancy of the liver. It is strongly associated with cirrhosis, from both alcohol and viral aetiologies. Hepatocellular carcinomas constitute approximately 5% of all cancers partly due to the high endemic rates o...
Article

Hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia

Hereditary haemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT), also known as Osler-Weber-Rendu syndrome, is a rare inherited disorder characterised by abnormal blood vessel formation in the skin, mucous membranes, and organs including the lungs, liver, and central nervous system. Epidemiology Worldwide prevale...
Article

Hypervascular liver lesions

Hypervascular liver lesions are findings that enhance more or similarly to the background hepatic parenchyma in the late arterial phase, on contrast-enhanced CT or MRI. Differential diagnosis Non-neoplastic focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH) bright arterial phase enhancement except central scar...
Article

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms or tumours (IPMNs or IMPTs) are epithelial pancreatic cystic tumours of mucin-producing cells that arise from the pancreatic ducts. They are most commonly seen in elderly patients.  On imaging, particularly MRCP, they are characterised by single or multi...

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