Computerized tomography of hepatomegaly

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.

Diagnosis[link]

After a thorough medical history and physical examination, blood tests should be done — importantly, the liver-function series, which will give a good impression of the patient's broad metabolic picture.

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.

Computed tomography (CT) can help obtain more accurate anatomical information, and is unaffected by obesity or the presence of bowel gases.

Common causes[link]

This article is incomplete. Please help to improve the article, or discuss the issue on the talk page. (February 2009)

Infective[link]

• Glandular fever (Infectious mononucleosis) This is caused by the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). A similar condition (pseudoglandular fever) may be caused by the Cytomegalo virus (CMV).
• Hepatitis (Although not all hepatitis viruses cause hepatomegaly)
• Liver abscess (pyogenic abscess and amoebic abscess)
• Malaria
• Amoeba infections
• Hydatid cyst
• Leptospirosis
• Actinomycosis

Neoplastic[link]

• Metastatic tumours secondary to spread from cancer in other organs (most common)
• Hemangiomas
• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Myeloma
• Leukemia
• Lymphoma
• carcinoma

Cirrhotic[link]

• Portal
• Biliary
• Cardio
• Haemochromatosis

Metabolic[link]

• Fatty infiltration
• Amyloidosis
• Gaucher's disease
• Niemann Pick disease
• Von Gierke disease (Glycogen Storage Disease type 1)
• Glycogen Storage Disease types III, VI and IX

Drugs and toxins[link]

• alcoholism
• poisoning

Congenital[link]

• Hemolytic anemia
• Riedel's lobe is an extended, tongue-like, right lobe of the liver. It is not pathological; it is a normal anatomical variant and may extend into the pelvis. It is often mistaken for a distended gall bladder or liver tumour.
• Polycystic disease
• Cori's disease

Others[link]

• Hunter syndrome
• Zellweger's syndrome
• Carnitine palmitoyltransferase I deficiency
• Right ventricular failure
• Granulomatous: Sarcoidosis
• Glycogen storage disease type II

See also[link]

• Hepatosplenomegaly

External links[link]

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

This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (October 2011) Click [show] on right for more details. No reason has been cited for the Wikify tag on this article.You can insert a reason using the |reason= parameter, like this: {{Wikify|reason=Your reason here}} Please replace HTML markup with wiki markup where appropriate. Add wikilinks. Where appropriate, make links to other articles by putting "[[" and "]]" on either side of relevant words (see WP:LINK for more information) and check that your links work as expected. Please do not link terms that most readers are familiar with, such as common occupations, well-known geographical terms, and everyday items. Format the lead. Create or improve the lead paragraph. Arrange section headers as described at Wikipedia:Guide to layout. Add an infobox if it is appropriate for the article. Clean up / format the references and footnotes, using citation templates when appropriate. Remove this tag.

Brian Moses was born in 1950 and is a French poet. He mainly writes for children, has over 160 published works and is a well known children's poet. Brian was asked to write a poem for the Queens 80th birthday.

Brian Moses is one of Britain's favourite children's poets, for both his own poetry and the anthologies he has edited. He has performed in over two thousand schools across the UK and Europe. He is a Reading Champion for the Literacy Trust, and is able to animate reading and writing poetry for pupils and teachers alike, in his workshops and in his resource books for teachers.

Brian’s interests range from the familiar - shopping trolleys, football matches - to the peculiar - monsters, aliens and angels. Often he will mix the two together in his poetry, so the 'Shopping Trolley' is souped-up like a futuristic sports car, while the monsters still go to school before coming home on 'The Ghoul School Bus'. Brian has a particularly sharp eye for surreal moments in daily life - the man in 'Walking with my Iguana', who walks his pet lizard on Hastings beach on a leash, is based on a real person.

Brian began writing poems when he realised he would never be a rock star - "I put the guitar to one side, but the songs carried on and became poems". That original musical influence can still be heard in his work; while he rarely sings, he performs so that pauses, tone of voice and speed become a central part of the poem. Few poets can hold a syllable so well as Brian, whether it's the hiss in 'The Snake Hotel' or the Tom Waits growl in 'Walking with my Iguana.'

Brian writes and edits poetry and picture books for children, and resource books for teachers. His latest book for teachers is Able Writers in Your School (co-written with Roger Stevens), Brilliant Publications. His latest picture books are The Snake Hotel - a lift-the-flap book, and Animal Pants (Both from Macmillan).

Brian was invited by HRH Prince Charles to speak at the Prince's Summer School for Teachers at Cambridge University in July 2007. He was also one of 10 children's poets invited by the then Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, to feature in a website as part of the National Poetry Archive - launched in November 2005. Address of site below.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Biography at Poetry Archive
• Brian Moses' page on AuthorsAbroad.com School Author Visits
• Brian Moses' book "Able Writers in Your School" from Brilliant Publications

This article about a poet from the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e