title: Fish bone foreign bodies in the pharynx and upper esophagus: evaluation with 64-slice MDCT.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Fish bone (FB) is one of the common causes of foreign body impaction in the pharynx and esophagus.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the efficacy of 64-slice multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) for the evaluation of pharynx and upper esophageal FB foreign bodies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sixty-six patients with suspected FB foreign body ingestion were examined by plain radiography (n = 40) and unenhanced MDCT (n = 66). We analyzed the presence, location, size, shape, and lying position of the foreign bodies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  On MDCT, 46 foreign bodies were detected. Among them, 45 were confirmed by endoscopy. The sensitivity of MDCT for the detection of foreign bodies was 100%, which was superior to that of the plain radiography (51.7%). The location of the foreign bodies was most common in the upper esophagus (n = 22, 47.8%), followed by pharyngoesophageal junction (n = 10, 21.7%), transjunctional (n = 7, 15.2%), hypopharynx (n = 5, 10.9%), and oropharynx (n = 2, 4.3%). Their longest length was 5.3-40.1 mm (mean, 21.3 mm). Thirty-three FBs (71.7%) were linear and 13 (28.3%) were flat in shape. They showed transverse (n = 23, 50.0%), parallel (n = 13, 28.3%), and oblique positions (n = 10, 21.7%) to the long axis of the pharynx and esophagus, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MDCT is useful for the evaluation of the pharynx and upper esophageal FB foreign bodies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Gyeongsang National University School of Medicine, Jinju, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Soyeon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Dae Seob
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Hwa Seon
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Jae Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Kyung Nyeo
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.forename: Kyung-Soo
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Eun Ha
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Koh
authors.forename: Jung Je
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D004947:Esophagus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D005399:Fishes; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061330:Multidetector Computed Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D010614:Pharynx / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: Foreign body; esophagus; fish bone; multidetector computed tomography; pharynx