Hepatomegaly is the condition of having an enlarged liver. It is a nonspecific medical sign having many causes, which can broadly be broken down into infection, direct toxicity, hepatic tumours, or metabolic disorder. Often, hepatomegaly will present as an abdominal mass. Depending on the cause, it may sometimes present along with jaundice. The term symptom (from the Greek syn = con/plus and pipto = fall, together meaning co-exist) has two similar meanings in the context of physical and mental health: Strictly, a symptom is a sensation or change in health function experienced by a patient. ... In medicine, a sign is a feature of disease as detected by the doctor during physical examination of a patient. ... The following codes are used with International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The following is a list of codes for International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. ... The liver is the largest internal organ of the human body. ... In medicine, a sign is a feature of disease as detected by the doctor. ... Infection is also the title of an episode of the television series Babylon 5, and the English title of the Japanese film Kansen. ... Hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver (medical terms pertaining to the liver often start in hepato- or hepatic from the Greek word for liver, hepar). ... A metabolic disorder is a medical disorder which affects the production of energy within individual human (or animal) cells. ... An abdominal mass is any localized enlargement or swelling in the human abdomen. ... Jaundice, also known as icterus (attributive adjective: icteric), is a yellowing of the skin, sclera (the white of the eyes) and mucous membranes caused by increased levels of bilirubin in the human body (or the body of another red blooded animal). ...

Diagnosis

After a thorough medical history and physical examination, blood tests 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. The medical history of a patient (sometimes called anamnesis [1][2] ) is information gained by a physician by asking specific questions, either of the patient or of other people who know the person and can give suitable information (in this case, it is sometimes called heteroanamnesis). ... In medicine, the physical examination or clinical examination is the process by which the physician investigates the body of a patient for signs of disease. ... Blood tests are laboratory tests done on blood to gain an appreciation of disease states and the function of organs. ... Liver function tests (LFTs or LFs), are groups of clinical biochemistry laboratory blood assays designed to give a doctor or other health professional information about the state of a patients liver. ...

An ultrasound of the liver can reliably detect a dilated biliary duct system, which helps distinguish parenchymal 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 cysts, abscesses and tumours. A baby in its mothers womb, viewed in a sonogram A baby, aged 29 weeks, in a 3D ultrasound Ultrasound is sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, this limit being approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz). ... A bile duct is any of a number of long tube-like structures that carry bile. ... In animals The parenchyma are the functional parts of an organ in the body (i. ... Cirrhosis is a chronic disease of the liver in which liver tissue is replaced by connective tissue, resulting in the loss of liver function. ... Needle aspiration biopsy is a procedure performed to diagnose and treat certain kind of illnesses. ... This is an article about cysts in the body. ... Abscess An abscess is a collection of pus collected in a cavity formed by the tissue on the basis of an infectious process (usually caused by bacteria or parasites) or other foreign materials (e. ...

Computed tomography (CT) can help obtain more accurate anatomical information, and is unaffected by the obesity or the presence of bowel gases. CT apparatus in a hospital Computed tomography (CT), originally known as computed axial tomography (CAT or CAT scan) and body section roentgenography, is a medical imaging method employing tomography where digital geometry processing is used to generate a three-dimensional image of the internals of an object from a large... Anatomical drawing of the human muscles from the Encyclopédie. ...

Common Causes

Infective

• Glandular fever
• Hepatitis
• Liver abscess
• Malaria
• Amoeba infections
• Hydatid cyst
• Leptospirosis
• Actinomycosis

Infectious mononucleosis (also known as mono, the kissing disease, Pfeiffers disease, and, in British English, glandular fever) is a disease seen most commonly in adolescents and young adults, characterized by fever, sore throat and fatigue. ... Hepatitis is a gastroenterological disease, featuring inflammation of the liver. ... Red blood cell infected with Malaria, derived from mala aria (Medieval Italian for bad air) and formerly called ague or marsh fever in English, is an infectious disease which causes about 350-500 million infections with humans and approximately 1. ... Amoeba (also spelled ameba) is a genus of protozoa that moves by means of temporary projections called pseudopods, and is well-known as a representative unicellular organism. ...

Neoplastic

• Haemangiomas
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Myeloma
• Leukaemia
• Lymphoma

Hemangioma is a benign tumor, usually in the shape of a ball, but sometimes a flatter mat, formed by a collection of excess blood vessels in an area. ... Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, also called hepatoma or liver cancer) is a primary malignancy (cancer) of the liver. ... Multiple myeloma (also known simply as myeloma or plasma cell myeloma) is a hematological malignancy of plasma cells, the cells of the immune system that produce antibodies. ... Leukemia (leukaemia in Commonwealth English) is a group of blood diseases characterized by malignancies (cancer) of the blood-forming tissues. ... Lymphoma is a variety of cancer that originates in the lymphatic system. ...

Cirrhotic

• Portal
• Biliary
• Cardiac
• Haemochromatosis

Haemochromatosis, also spelled hemochromatosis, is a hereditary disease characterized by improper processing by the body of dietary iron which causes iron to accumulate in a number of body tissues, eventually causing organ dysfunction. ...

Metabolic

• Fatty infiltration
• Amyloidosis
• Gaucher's disease

Gauchers disease (pronounced ) is the most common of the lipid storage diseases. ...

Drugs and Toxins

• alcoholism
• poisoning
• drugs

Alcoholism is a powerful craving for alcohol which often results in the compulsive consumption of alcohol otherwise known as an addiction. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational rather than medical or spiritual purposes, although the distinction is not always clear. ...

Congenital

• Haemolytic anaemia
• Riedel's lobe
• Polycystic disease

Hemolysis (alternative spelling haemolysis) is the excessive breakdown of red blood cells. ...

Others

• Hunter syndrome
• Zellweger's syndrome
• Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency
• Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II deficiency
• Carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase deficiency

Hunters syndrome is a mucopolysaccharide disease caused by an enzyme deficiency of iduronate-2-sulfatase (I2S). ... Zellweger syndrome is a rare, congenital disorder (present at birth), characterized by the reduction or absence of peroxisomes (cell structures that rid the body of toxic substances) in the cells of the liver, kidneys, and brain. ... Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency is a rare condition that prevents the body from converting certain fats called long-chain fatty acids into energy, particularly during periods without food. ... Carnitine palmitoyltransferase II deficiency is a condition that prevents the body from converting certain fats called long-chain fatty acids into energy, particularly during periods without food. ... Carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase deficiency is a rare condition that prevents the body from converting long-chain fatty acids into energy, particularly during periods without food. ...

See also

• Hepatosplenomegaly

Hepatosplenomegaly is the simultaneous enlargement of both the liver (hepatomegaly) and the spleen (splenomegaly). ...

External links

• National Institute of Health's Medline Plus Medical Encyclopedia: Hepatomegaly
• Merck Manual: Hepatomegaly