Abstract
Pelvic inflammation continues to pose a challenge because of diversity in clinical presentation, occurrence in up to 10% of women in fertile age, and resulting implications in public health in the acute setting and due to long-term sequelae (Livengood 2011). Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) refers to infection of the upper genital tract due to ascension from the vagina, and is typically found in sexually active females. PID has to be discriminated from infections of the genital organs in the postpuerperal period and from hematogenous spread. Furthermore pelvic inflammation may result secondary to inflammatory pelvic processes including diverticulitis, appendicitis, Crohn’s disease, and pelvic surgery. Although pain and tenderness are the most consistent clinical features, symptoms are often atypical, and in 20% of patients with PID, laboratory signs of inflammation or fever are missing (Quiroz 1999). The role of imaging in suspected pelvic inflammatory disease is to rule out non-gynecological causes of pelvic inflammation, to confirm the diagnosis of PID in advanced cases, particularly to diagnose tubo-ovarian abscess formation and its complications, and to perform abscess drainage.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Callen PW. Computed tomographic evaluation of abdominal and pelvic abscesses. Radiology. 1979;131:171–5.
Chen KT. Postpartum endometritis. 2011. http://www.uptodate.com. Accessed 11 May 2011.
Ghattamaneni S, Bhuskute N, Weston MJ, et al. Discriminative MRI features of fallopian tube masses. Clin Radiol. 2009;64:815–35.
Ghiatas AA. The spectrum of pelvic inflammatory disease. Euro Radiol. 2004;14:184–92.
Kim SH, Kim SH, Yang DM, et al. Unusual causes of tubo-ovarian abscess. CT and MR imaging findings. RadioGraphics. 2004;24:1575–89.
Kim MY, Rha ES, Oh SN, et al. MR findings of hydrosalpinx: a comprehensive review. RadioGrahics. 2009a;29:495–507.
Kim JY, Kim Y, Jeong WK, et al. Perihepatitis with pelvic inflammatory disease on MDCT: characteristic findings and relevance to PID. Abdom Imaging. 2009b;34:737–42.
Livengood CH. Pathogenesis and risk factors of PID. 2011. http://www.uptodate.com
Namavar JB, Parsanezhad ME, Ghane-Shirazi R. Female genital tuberculosis and infertility. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2001;75:269–71.
Osborne NG. Tubo-ovarian abscess: pathogenesis and management. J Natl Med Assoc. 1986;78:937–51.
Quiroz FA. Pelvic inflammatory disease. Appl Radiol. 1999;28:30–5.
Rezvani M, Shaaban AM. Fallopian tube disease in the nonpregnant patient. Radiographics. 2011;31:527–48.
Rodriguez-de Valesques A, Yoder CI, Velasquez PA, et al. Imaging effects of diabetes on the genitourinary system. Radiographics. 1995;15:1051–68.
Rooholamini S, Au AH, Hansen GC, et al. Imaging of pregnancy related complications. RadioGraphics. 1993;13:753–70.
Sam JW, Jacobs JE, Birnbaum BA. Spectrum of CT findings in acute pyogenic pelvic inflammatory disease. Radiographics. 2002;22:1327–34.
Schmidt WA. IUD’s, inflammation and infection: assessment after two decades of IUD use. Hum Pathol. 1982;13:878–81.
Spencer JA, Weston JM, Saidi S, et al. Clinical utility of image-guided peritoneal and omental biopsy. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2010;7:623–31.
Wachsberg RH, Kurtz A. Gas within the endometrial cavity at postpartum US: a normal finding after spontaneous vaginal delivery. Radiology. 1992;183:431–3.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Meissnitzer, M., Forstner, R. (2013). Inflammatory and Infectious Diseases. In: Hamm, B., Ros, P.R. (eds) Abdominal Imaging. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13327-5_137
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-13327-5_137
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-13326-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-13327-5
eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine