Fatty Liver Images - Real Pictures, Ultrasound & Non-Alcoholic

Fatty liver basically refers to excess fat accumulation in the liver cells, also known as hepatocytes. This interferes with the basic functioning of the liver. Fatty liver can be of two types:

1. Alcoholic Fatty liver (AFL): This is the most common cause of Fatty liver occurring due to excessive alcohol consumption.
2. Non-alcoholic Fatty liver (NAFL): It may occur due to infections, certain drugs, etc.

The liver cells become a loaded storage house of fat molecules in the fatty liver. This happens when the body is incapable of metabolising the extra fat. Several factors cause the accumulation of fat in the liver. Some of them include the following:

1. Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Too much alcohol can potentially hamper the body's fat breakdown metabolism, resulting in alcoholic fatty liver disease.   
2. Obesity or being overweight is another cause of fatty liver. High levels of fats such as triglycerides in the bloodstream are a kind of indication of extra fat being stored in the liver.  
3. Diabetes Mellitus or Insulin resistance: High levels of blood glucose or insulin resistance when body cells cannot take in the glucose molecules and use them contributes to fat accumulation in the liver.  
4. Pregnancy, side effects of the medicines, hepatitis infection, namely hepatitis C, or genetic factors are the less common causes

Ultrasound or Sonography is one of the safest and cheapest methods for diagnosing fatty liver disease. It's a kind of scan that provides adequate fatty liver images to assist the medical practitioner in delivering a good diagnosis. 

How does the Ultrasound show fatty liver images? 

1. Ultrasound uses a few comparison edges to diagnose if an individual suffers from fatty liver. The parenchymal echogenicity of the kidney is compared to that of the liver. 
2. In case of a normal or healthy individual, the echogenicity or the echotexture of the parenchyma of the spleen and renal cortex appears to be the same or slightly lower than that of the liver. However, in diseased conditions, i.e. in fatty liver, the echogenicity of the liver is greatly elevated than the renal cortex and spleen. 
3. The reason behind this is essentially the fatty infiltration. When the fatty liver becomes more serious, the diaphragm loses its definition and becomes unclear, and the liver appears brighter. 
4. In the Liver Cirrhosis stage, the liver overall appears as coarse or a heterogeneous structure.  
5. The fatty liver ultrasound images above depict the high echogenicity or brighter patches. Also, a fair comparison between the spleen, renal cortex, and liver can be made. 

How to understand the fatty liver ultrasound images? 

The fatty liver ultrasound images of the liver appear much brighter (hyperechoic) as compared to the normal liver images. More brightness means more severity of fatty liver disease. However, too much brightness shows a low-definition fatty liver ultrasound image.

Ultrasound is a non-invasive and cost-effective procedure that helps elevate the level of fat accumulated in the liver or the degree of damage as the focal or diffuse alterations in the liver parenchyma. The grades of fatty liver are as follows: 

1. Score 0 suggests the absence of this condition, i.e. fatty liver. The echo texture, the appearance of intrahepatic vessels, the parenchymal layer of the liver, and the diaphragm are normal here. 
2. Score 1 indicates mild accumulation of fat on the liver. A slight increase in the echogenicity of the liver is seen in this case. However, the wall of the portal vein and the diaphragm can be visualised as normal. 
3. Score 2 fatty liver consists of moderate level severity. Here, the echogenicity of the liver is moderately increased. The diaphragm and portal vein wall appear to be slightly impaired.
4. Score 3 is a level at which the severity of the liver disease is extremely high. A marked increase in the echotexture of the liver can be visualised at this stage. The posterior end of the liver lobe, along with the wall of the portal vein and diaphragm, are poorly visible or, at times, can even lose their visibility when the fatty liver reaches score 3. 

Patients with fatty liver are often asymptomatic. Hence they are usually diagnosed accidentally. They only show symptoms in the later stages when the disease has advanced. Fatty liver images help diagnose and understand the progression of the disease.

We hope this article informs you everything you want to know about fatty liver and its ultrasound images. In case you have any other queries, feel free to contact us! At HexaHealth, we ensure that every patient is not only getting the right treatment but is also educated about his or her health concerns.