Anyone with doubts about how their lifestyle choices, including excessive alcohol consumption and poor diet, may be impacting their liver health would benefit from this diagnostic scan. Liver disease is a serious condition and can often progress without symptoms, complicating early identification and delaying potentially life-saving treatment. Having fast access to this private self-pay scan is very beneficial for this reason.

The sooner you have an assessment of any fibrous or fatty infiltration of your liver, the sooner lifestyle or medicated interventions can be made to reverse any liver damage.

Clinical experts in NICE guidelines suggest people who do not have advanced liver fibrosis or cirrhosis but do have risk factors* for potential chronic liver disease would benefit from regular liver assessments every three years.

*including type 2 diabetes, obesity, those drinking harmful amounts of alcohol and those at risk of viral hepatitis (including people using intravenous drugs)

There are many different forms of liver disease caused by a variety of factors.

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Often caused by poor lifestyle choices and diet. The risk is greater for people with existing or potential health issues like cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure or obesity

Alcohol-related liver disease

This is caused through drinking alcohol. Even drinking large amounts of alcohol for a few days can lead to a fatty liver and more serious conditions

Undiagnosed hepatitis infection

These can sometimes go undiagnosed, causing more damage to the liver

It’s important to remember that liver disease often doesn’t cause symptoms in the early stages of development. If you’re struggling with any of the following symptoms you could have cirrhosis (where your liver is already damaged and scarred):

• Feeling or being sick
• Tiredness and feeling weak
• Loss of sex drive and appetite
• Itchy skin
• Yellowing skin and whites of eyes (also known as jaundice)

The risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is greater for people with existing or potential health issues, such as:

• Cardiovascular disease
• Metabolic syndrome
• High blood pressure
• Abnormal levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood
• Diabetes
• Obesity, as this increases levels of fat around the liver

1. You’ll only need to book one appointment for your abdominal scan and liver assessment
2. A liver ultrasound is a non-invasive liver diagnostic method, reducing the need for an invasive liver biopsy
3. Other scanners using this technology called elastography, such as FibroScan, cannot visualise the liver whilst measuring, so the results are often not as accurate
4. You’ll have immediate results, so you can have peace of mind

It is important that you do not eat anything and minimise drinking liquids for six hours before your liver scanning ultrasound. Eating or drinking as normal can cause interference and reduce the accuracy of your results.

Some patients may like to arrive in comfy clothes, which make access to scanning the liver (located in your upper right abdomen, beneath your diaphragm) easier.

Ensure you arrive on time to your appointment to minimise delays and do ask any questions prior to your procedure by contacting our Private Patients team when you book.

On the day of your liver ultrasound scan, you will be welcomed at our Imaging reception where you’ll then wait in our ultrasound waiting area. One of our specialist Sonographers will then take you into our private and discreet ultrasound room to begin your examination.

The ultrasound scan of your liver will take approximately 20 minutes. If we need to look at your abdomen area, an additional 20 minutes will be needed. Specialised elastography and Ultrasound-Derived Fat Fraction software is used to measure your liver stiffness and fatty infiltration.

After your scan, our Sonographer will report on your examination that day. The results and measurements for the liver tests are included in the report which will be sent to your Consultant for a follow-up appointment in person or via the telephone.

You can access our self-pay liver service if you’re on an NHS waiting list for a Liver scan, or if you book an initial gastroenterology consultation. For more information on how to access this service, please contact our Private Patient team by phone on 01580 363158 or fill in our enquiry form.