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Acute non-traumatic abdominal pain by quadrant: relative yield of CT and clinical evaluation for diagnosis in 1000 patients

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Abstract

Objective

To determine the relative diagnostic yield of contrast-enhanced CT in adults presenting with symptoms referable to a specific abdominal quadrant.

Methods

Electronic health records review systematically identified patients meeting the following inclusion criteria: adults (≥ 18 years) undergoing IV contrast-enhanced abdominopelvic CT for acute non-traumatic symptoms referable to a specific abdominal quadrant (RLQ/LLQ/LUQ/RUQ). The CT-based diagnosis and any clinical diagnosis in the absence of CT diagnosis were recorded. The final cohort of 1000 subjects (mean age, 48.1 years; 647F/353M) consisted of consecutive sub-cohorts of 250 patients for each abdominal quadrant. Positive oral contrast was utilized in 91.6% (916/1000) of cases.

Results

A positive CT diagnosis was provided in 47.3% (473/1000) of all patients, and was highest for LLQ (58.8%) and RLQ (58.0%) symptoms, including diverticulitis and appendicitis in 23.6% and 24.8% cases, respectively. CT positivity was lower for the LUQ (34.4%) and RUQ (38.0%) (p < 0.0001), with no single diagnosis representing > 5% of cases. However, all quadrants provided valuable triage of 218 hospital admissions (21.8%), 83.0% were CT positive, whereas 62.7% of 782 discharged patients were CT negative. Only 7.0% of CT-negative patients were admitted. A clinical-only diagnosis was provided in 9.3% of the total cohort (93/1000), representing 17.6% of the CT-negative cohort (93/527).

Conclusion

The rate of positive CT diagnosis is considerably higher for the lower abdominal quadrants, predominately due to appendicitis and diverticulitis. However, CT results (positive vs. negative) for all four quadrants strongly correlated with hospital admission versus discharge. Clinical-only diagnosis represented < 10% of all cases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, E3/311 Clinical Science Center, 600 Highland Ave., Madison, WI, 53792-3252, USA

    Perry J. Pickhardt

  2. Department of Radiology, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY, USA

    Leslie Nelson

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  1. Perry J. Pickhardt
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  2. Leslie Nelson
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Correspondence to Perry J. Pickhardt.

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Conflict of interest

Relationships with industry: Dr. Pickhardt—advisor to Bracco; shareholder in SHINE, Elucent, and Cellectar. Dr. Nelson declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was waived for this retrospective study.

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Pickhardt, P.J., Nelson, L. Acute non-traumatic abdominal pain by quadrant: relative yield of CT and clinical evaluation for diagnosis in 1000 patients. Abdom Radiol 44, 2963–2970 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-019-02064-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-019-02064-6

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