Q. I am a 35-year-old woman, 1.65m tall and weighing 48kg. I have two children, aged two and seven. Recently, I felt this growth in my abdomen. It is like a little golf ball. But I only feel it when I am lying down. Then it started to move to both sides of my abdomen and disappeared after I touched it. It's not painful but I have no idea what it could be.

Also, sometimes I feel an odd pulse - like a heartbeat - in my abdomen area. I don't think it is located on the lump and I don't think the pulse moves. I am very sure that I am not pregnant as I've tested negative on the kit. I have been on IUDC for the last two years. Can you please tell me what the moving lump and heartbeat in my stomach are? Am I at high risk of stomach cancer or something?

A. It is likely that you are feeling your own normal duodenal bulb with contraction as the intestine moves and contracts regularly around the abdomen region. This is more prominent in thin individuals.

However, if you have persistent discomfort over this region with other symptoms such as unknown weight loss, vomiting, passage of black stool, change in bowel habit and jaundice, a consultation with a gastroenterologist is recommended. In addition, other organs over this area include the liver, pancreas and transverse colon. Diseases of these other organs may need to be excluded if symptoms persist.

The pulsation that was felt is likely transmitted from the abdominal aorta (the central big artery that lies below the stomach which supplies blood to the abdominal organs).

Again, this is more prominently felt in thin individuals and is normal.

DR LAW NGAI MOH, CONSULTANT GASTROENTEROLOGIST, RAFFLES HOSPITAL

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