Israel Medical Association Journal

Background: Acute non-traumatic abdominal pain is typically evaluated by abdomino-pelvic computed tomography (CT) with oral and venous contrast. The accuracy of unenhanced CT for diagnosis in this setting has not been widely studied.

Objectives: To assess the accuracy of unenhanced CT in establishing the etiology of acute non-traumatic abdominal pain.

Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical and imaging records of patients aged ≥ 18 years who presented to the emergency department (ED) during a 6-month period with acute non-traumatic abdominal pain of unknown etiology, and who were evaluated with non-contrast CT within 24 hours of ED admission. Clinical details were recorded. A presumptive clinical diagnosis and CT diagnosis were compared to the discharge diagnosis which was considered the reference standard. The requirement for informed consent was waived.

Results: Altogether, 315 patients met the inclusion criteria – 138 males (44%) and 177 females (56%); their mean age was 45 years (range 18–90). Clinical diagnosis correlated with the CT findings in 162 of the cases (51%). CT was accurate in 296/315 cases (94%). The leading diagnosis in cases of a mismatch between CT diagnosis and discharge diagnosis was infection mostly in the urinary tract (12/18). Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value were 91%, 99%, 91% and 85% respectively. The discharge diagnosis was unchanged in the patients who returned to the ED within 1 week of the first admission.

Conclusions: In this study, unenhanced CT proved to be a feasible, convenient and legitimate examination for the evaluation of patients with acute non-traumatic abdominal pain presenting to the ED.

Background: Virtual autopsies by computer tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging can be valuable in cases of unexplained infant death. The radiologist must be familiar with the normal appearance of all the segments of the thoracic aorta in normal and deceased children. A thorough review of the literature revealed no prior articles describing CT changes in the ascending aorta or the aortic arch in pediatric virtual autopsies.

Objectives: To compare the CT appearance of the thoracic aorta in deceased children and in those younger than 3 years of age.

Methods: Hospital registries were searched for cases of unexpected deaths in children younger than 3 years old, with a postmortem CT available, as well as for clinically indicated chest CT in children of the same age during a 5 year period. The ascending aorta (AA), aortic arch (arch), and the descending aorta (DA) diameters were measured. Student's t-tests and Mann–Whitney U-tests were used to compare the two groups.

Results: A total of 64 scans were reviewed: 35 postmortem and 29 performed on living patients. The differences in the diameter and the ratios of the diameter between the AA and the arch, as well as between the arch and the DA in the postmortem and living groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05).

Conclusions: On postmortem CT scans, we found focal tapering of the aortic caliber at the level of the arch between the origin of the brachiocephalic artery and left subclavian artery. This finding should not be misinterpreted as a hypoplastic aortic arch.

Objective: To evaluate the contribution of computerized tomography to the diagnosis of Takayasu's arteritis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of the diagnostic process was recently conducted in three consecutive patients diagnosed over the last 3 years.

Results: Three females of Arab origin with Takayasu's arteritis were recently identified by CT. In two of the three patients the imaging procedure was performed for different working hypotheses, and the radiological findings (wall thickening, perivascular edema, and segmental intraluminal obliteration of the aorta and its major branches) were unexpected. In these two patients, repeated physical examination following the imaging procedure disclosed initially missed findings that could have led to an earlier consideration of Takayasu's arteritis (bruits above the epigastrium, subclavian and carotid arteries, and absent brachial pulses). Retrospective analysis of the patients' symptoms following CT revealed the true nature of the patients' misinterpreted complaints (e.g., typical abdominal angina replaced a faulty obtained history compatible with renal colic or dyspepsia). In the third patient CT was performed for the evaluation of an epigastric bruit associated with constitutional complaints. The diagnosis of aortitis, based upon the presence of diffuse aortic wall thickening and edema of the surrounding fat, without intraluminal narrowing, could have been missed by angiography, the traditional "gold standard" diagnostic procedure. All three patients complained of ill-defined epigastric abdominal pain and had epigastric tenderness during examination.

Conclusions: CT has the potential for detecting Takayasu's disease and may be superior to angiography, particularly at the early non-obliterative stage. Since the diagnosis of Takayasu's disease is rarely considered, the expanding use of CT and MRI technologies may reveal missed cases that are evaluated for other plausible diagnoses. The true incidence of Takayasu's arteritis in Israel may be much higher than reported, particularly in the Arab population. Our findings suggest that epigastric tenderness, originating from active inflammatory reaction in the abdominal aortic wall, should be considered as a diagnostic criterion of Takayasu's aortitis.