Alternative diagnoses of acute appendicitis on helical CT with intravenous and rectal contrast.

At our institution, helical CT of the abdomen and pelvis with intravenous and rectal contrast (CTRC) has become the modality of choice for investigation of patients with right lower quadrant pain and clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis. CTRC has proven useful for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis (AA) and at the same time identifies alternative diagnoses mimicking AA. This pictorial assay illustrates the imaging findings of AA and its mimickers including primary epiploic appendagitis, right-sided diverticulitis, torsion of Meckel's diverticulum, gynecologic disorders, obstructive uropathy, right lower lobe pneumonia, and other conditions.

Primary epiploic appendagitis: a report of two cases.

Primary epiploic appendagitis (PEA) is a rare benign self-limiting inflammatory process of the colonic epiploic appendices. Patients present with acute abdominal pain, often misdiagnosed clinically as acute appendicitis or diverticulitis. Computed tomography (CT) scan findings of this condition are characteristic and can confidently suggest the diagnosis avoiding unnecessary barium enemas and colonoscopy, biopsy, or surgery.

Metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma to the breast.

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a common extramammary primary malignancy in childhood that rarely metastasises to the breast. We present a patient with primary sinonasal rhabdomyosarcoma who was in remission when she developed breast metastases. We describe particular imaging findings of this disease, using ultrasound and MR imaging. To our knowledge, MR findings have only been described in one previous case report in the literature.

Use of limited MR protocol (coronal STIR) in the evaluation of patients with hip pain.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the role of a limited MR protocol (coronal STIR) as the initial part of the MR examination in patients with hip pain. DESIGN AND PATIENTS: Eighty-five patients presenting with hip pain, and normal radiographs of the pelvis, and who underwent our full MR protocol for hips were included retrospectively in the study. The full protocol consists of coronal T1-weighted and short tau inversion-recovery (STIR), and axial T2-weighted sequences. Ninety-three MR examinations were performed. Two radiologists interpreted the STIR (limited) examinations and the full studies separately, masked to each other's findings and to the final diagnosis. Comparison between the two protocols was then undertaken. RESULTS: For both readers, all normal MR examinations on the coronal STIR limited protocol were normal on the full protocol, with an interobserver reliability of 0.96. The STIR protocol was able to detect the presence or absence of an abnormality in 100% of cases (sensitivity). The STIR-only protocol provided a specific diagnosis in only 65% of cases (specificity). CONCLUSION: A normal coronal STIR study of the hips in patients with hip pain and normal radiographs precludes the need for further pelvic MR sequences. Any abnormality detected on this limited protocol should be further assessed by additional MR sequences.

The gamut of abdominal and pelvic cystic masses in children.

The gamut of abdominal and pelvic cystic masses in children is long with lesions affecting the urogenital tract and retroperitoneum, gastrointestinal tract and mesentery, hepatobiliary tract, and spleen. The goal of this pictorial review is to display the radiological manifestations of these disorders. The radiologist will learn, from this review of the differential diagnosis, how to reach a diagnosis after analyzing the characteristic findings using the appropriate imaging diagnostic studies among the various modalities available in his armamentarium, and the optimal management of these conditions.

Unilocular hepatic echinococcal cysts: sonography and computed tomography findings.

AIM: In endemic regions, unilocular hepatic echinococcal cysts (HEC) may be difficult to differentiate radiologically from simple non-parasitic cysts, especially if serological tests were negative. The aim of this descriptive study is to elucidate distinctive imaging findings that allow a diagnosis of HEC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sonographic and computed tomography (CT) findings of 21 patients with proven unilocular HEC were retrospectively analysed. A total of 28 examinations were reviewed, including 14 sonograms (ultrasound; US) of the liver and 14 CT studies. RESULTS: Seven imaging features that help in the diagnosis of unilocular HEC were identified by US and/or CT in 14 patients (14/21; 66.6%). They are, by order of frequency: hydatid sand (29.2%), focal or segmental thickening of the cyst wall (29.2%), coexistent echinococcal cysts in the spleen or lungs (16.6%), pericystic biliary radicles dilatation (8.3%), atrophy of the right lobe with compensatory hypertrophy of the left hepatic lobe (8.3%), satellite cysts typical of HEC in the liver (4.2%) and pericyst calcification (4.2%). CONCLUSION: These ancillary signs should prompt us to consider HEC as the cause of a unilocular cyst in approximately two-thirds of patients.