A patient with abdominal pain presents for a liver scan. What is the likely finding in the sonogram?

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Multiple Choice

A patient with abdominal pain presents for a liver scan. What is the likely finding in the sonogram?

Multiple hepatic cysts on ultrasound point to polycystic liver disease. On the scan you would expect to see numerous well-defined anechoic cystic spaces throughout the liver, each with thin walls and posterior acoustic enhancement. This multicyst pattern differentiates it from a single simple hepatic cyst, which would present as one lesion, and from other causes such as obstructive jaundice (which would show bile duct dilation) or manifestations of candidiasis (which often appear as focal, nodular or abscess-like lesions rather than multiple uniform cysts). In a patient with abdominal pain undergoing a liver scan, recognizing this pattern helps identify polycystic liver disease as the likely finding.

Multiple hepatic cysts on ultrasound point to polycystic liver disease. On the scan you would expect to see numerous well-defined anechoic cystic spaces throughout the liver, each with thin walls and posterior acoustic enhancement. This multicyst pattern differentiates it from a single simple hepatic cyst, which would present as one lesion, and from other causes such as obstructive jaundice (which would show bile duct dilation) or manifestations of candidiasis (which often appear as focal, nodular or abscess-like lesions rather than multiple uniform cysts). In a patient with abdominal pain undergoing a liver scan, recognizing this pattern helps identify polycystic liver disease as the likely finding.

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