Ultrasound: diseases — симптомы, диагностика и лечение

Varicose veins are persistent dilation of the saphenous veins of the legs due to incompetence of the venous valves. Blood that should move from bottom to top partially flows back and stretches the vein. Many people consider varicose veins to be a purely cosmetic problem and wait for years until they “get in the way.” In fact, this is a progressive disease: without treatment, it leads to swelling, darkening of the skin, trophic ulcers and thrombophlebitis. At the same time, at an early stage, treatment is simple and outpatient.

Uterine fibroids are a benign tumor of the muscle tissue of the uterus, one of the most common gynecological diseases in women of reproductive age. The diagnosis sounds scary, but it is important to immediately set the emphasis: fibroids are not cancer and do not turn into it, and a significant part of the nodes do not require treatment at all - only observation. The decision is made not based on the presence of a node, but on its size, location and symptoms.

Hydronephrosis is an expansion of the renal collecting system due to impaired urine outflow. Hydronephrosis itself is not a disease, but a consequence: somewhere on the way from the kidney to the bladder there is an obstacle. The danger is that the kidney slowly and often painlessly loses its tissue - a person may not be aware of the problem for years until a significant part of the organ’s function is lost.

A kidney cyst is a rounded cavity with fluid inside the kidney tissue. This is one of the most common incidental findings on ultrasound: with age, simple cysts are found in a significant proportion of people and in most cases do not require any treatment. The key task of the doctor is to distinguish a harmless simple cyst from a complex cystic formation, which may hide a tumor.

Fatty liver disease is the accumulation of fat in liver cells, which today occurs in every third or fourth adult and is most often discovered by chance during an ultrasound for another reason. The wording in the conclusion like “diffuse changes like steatosis” is scary, but in itself does not mean a serious illness. What matters is whether the process has turned into inflammation (steatohepatitis), because it is this that leads to fibrosis and, in the long term, to cirrhosis. And one more thing that is worth knowing right away: there is no specific medicine “for fat in the liver”, but what seems banal works - weight loss and metabolic control.

Prostate adenoma, or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), is a growth of prostate tissue that compresses the urethra and interferes with the normal flow of urine. This is not cancer or a precancerous condition, but it is BPH that most often spoils the quality of life of men after fifty: frequent rises at night, a weak stream, a feeling of incomplete emptying. Without treatment, the disease can lead to complete urinary retention and kidney damage.

Gallstone disease is the formation of stones in the gall bladder. It occurs very often, and in a significant proportion of people stones exist for years asymptomatically, being detected by chance on an ultrasound. The key point that determines the tactics is precisely this: asymptomatic stones in most cases do not require surgery, but the appearance of biliary colic changes the situation - after the first attack, the likelihood of recurrence and complications becomes high, and planned removal of the bladder turns out to be safer than waiting.

Nodules in the thyroid gland are found very often: ultrasound reveals them in a significant proportion of adults, and their frequency increases with age. The first reaction is almost always the same - fear and the thought of cancer. In fact, the vast majority of nodes are benign and require neither surgery nor treatment, but only observation. The doctor’s task is to use clear criteria to identify those few nodes that need puncture, and not subject all others to unnecessary interventions.

An ovarian cyst is a cavity with fluid inside or on the surface of the ovary. This is a very common finding, and the main thing you need to understand is that cysts are fundamentally different. Functional cysts are a consequence of the normal functioning of the ovary; they appear and disappear on their own within several cycles. True cysts - dermoid, endometrioid, cystadenomas - do not go away on their own and require a different approach. The doctor’s task is to distinguish one from the other and not operate unnecessary.