What could it be? 10/28/2010



What is this?

What do I have?

I am doing an extra blog for this lab, because I thought that this was something interesting.  While scanning my kidney we found something that appeared abnormal.  We were unsure what it was at the time.  After further research we believe we have figured it out.  It was found that I have a duplex kidney, this means that I have an extra renal pelvis.  This is a normal anatomic variant which can easily be mistaken for a cyst.  The cyst like structure we are seeing is actually where my collecting system sits.  It is outside the kidney, medial to the hilum.  Now it will be interesting to see if I have double ureters.  Can't wait for the pelvis scanning to see if I do.  I am including a picture showing my duplex kidney, one without color and one with color to proof that there is no blood flow within the collecting system.

I will also include the picture of a normal right kidney, for those of you that do not know what one looks like ever.  Unfortunately, my picture may not be as good as the one to the left because I was using a different system.  You should still be able to see the difference though.

Normal Rt Kidney at hilum                                                                Rt Kidney at hilum with duplex kidney

October 28 Week 9

In this lab we were asked to start playing around with color doppler.  I am still having a bit of trouble understanding the whole concept, but as Bryan said this will all become much clearer when we get to physics.  Boy I can't wait for that.  Sorry that is a bit of sarcasm, I am not much of a physics student. 

Well, I am including a picture of the kidney were I have placed the color doppler to show the blood flow and vasculature of the organ.  I am not sure if I adjusted the gain to an acceptable level.  I do know that I did not go too far, because we do not see a lot of noise.  We are only seeing the flow within the kidney.  I have seen pictures where this has been used correctly, and I think that it makes for very neat images.  I can't wait until this all becomes a bit clearer to me.  I did enjoy the practice of scanning the kidney. 

October 21 Lab Week 8

In this lab we were required to interrogate and image the great vessels, liver and pancreas in an hour.  This was a bit rough.  It was hard to remember all the images that were needed, as well as all the different interrogations.  The liver has so many sweeps, it is hard for me to remember which one and pay attention to every aspect. 

I am including a picture of the gallbladder in transverse in both the supine and left lateral decubitus position.  Luckily with the other people in my class so far scanning the gallbladder has been pretty easy.  Probably my favorite organ to scan so far.  Mainly for how simple the interrogations and scans are.  I am sure that after more practice the rest will come more easily and I will definitely feel more comfortable with all the other abdominal scans. 

I think the picure that I took with the patient in the left lateral decubitis picture looks a bit clearer.  You get a nice round anechoic image of the fundus of the gallbladder.  The decubitus position does sometimes make it easier to clearly view the organ you are looking for because some of the gas may shift making everything more easily visualized.  With this patient however, both positions produced a nice image of the gall bladder.  Also lucky for her there does not appear to be any pathology affecting her gallbladder.  No wall thickening, no stones or polyps are present. 

 

October 7th Lab

Again I had to miss this lab, trust me would have much rather been in class than dealing with everything else.  In this lab all the parts of the abdomen we have been dealing with were supposed to be scanned and imaged.  I chose to attach two pictures of the GB I was able to take in another lab.  I have attached a picture of the gallbladder in long taken both with the patient in the supine and left lateral decubitis position.  In my opionion the picure I took with the patient in decub is a better image of the gallbladder in its true long.  You really get a good look at the length of the gallbladder.  Also from what I remember it was an easier image for me to acquire.  In the supine position you don't really get the length that you do in the decub.  Plus there are times you have more gas to contend with, depending on your patient. 

     I do like how easy it is to locate and scan the gallbladder.  Well, I guess I should say as of now it is easy.  Of course we have been dealing with pretty easy patients.  I have not had to deal with any obese patients, or hard to scan patients based on pathology or anything.  I do feel comfortable about obtaining these issues. 

September 30th Lab

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this lab, but have had a chance to scan the billiary tree since then.  In this picture you can see the common bile duct.  This is probably my least favorite thing to scan at this time.  I have had some trouble locating it, and I know that others have had trouble locating it on me.  I believe when we did this lab in order to distinguish this as the CBD we used doppler to prove that there was no blood flow.  I do like the challenge of locating it, but can't wait until the time that it comes a bit easier.