title: [Diagnostic value of emergency ultrasonography of the abdomen].
abstract: We evaluated the diagnostic usefulness of abdominal ultrasound performed by trained MDs at a general internal medicine clinic in 104 patients with acute abdominal problems. In 30% (31 patients) sonography was diagnostic or was able to guide the further evaluation of the patient. Most diagnoses concerned problems of the nephrologic, urologic or hepatobiliary systems. In 70% (73 patients) sonography was normal or showed unimportant findings; none of these patients had a final diagnosis which should have been detected by sonography. Only 10 of these 73 patients had a diagnosis which needed specific treatment (urinary tract infection n = 5, peptic ulcer disease n = 3, carcinoma of the colon n = 2). In conclusion, sonography proved to be a very useful, highly diagnostic and reliable method even when performed by non-radiologists.
authors.affiliation: Medizinische Universitäts-Poliklinik, Departement Innere Medizin, Kantonsspital Basel.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hänggi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rüttimann
authors.forename: U C
authors.initials: UC
authors.lastname: Dubach
mesh_terms: D000006:Abdomen, Acute / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography; D014570:Urologic Diseases / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging
vernacular_title: Diagnostische Wertigkeit bei dringlich durchgeführter abdominaler Sonographie.