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Emergency radiology

  • EMERGENCY RADIOLOGY
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Abstract

US has a relevant role in the initial assessment of non-traumatic emergencies of the abdomen, sometimes being conclusive and some other times for selecting the patients for further imaging with CT. Injection of a contrast medium may give to the radiologist additional information to that obtained at baseline US and Doppler examination, since real-time, contrast-enhanced US (CEUS) may allow observing findings in the abdomen not recognizable at baseline US or even at color Doppler imaging. Extravascular use of microbubbles may also be useful in clinical practice to rapidly solve a number of unclear aspects. CEUS has a number of distinct advantages in acute patients, including its quickness, low invasiveness, and its possible bedside use. The information based on contrast enhancement is useful for initial diagnosis, therapeutic decision making, and follow-up of the critically ill patients. The purpose of this review is to illustrate the possibilities and limitations of abdominal CEUS in the acute setting, with special emphasis on the detection and characterization of acute inflammatory processes, infarcts, and hemorrhages.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Alessandra Trocino, Librarian at the Fondazione Pascale, for help in bibliographic research.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflict of interest to mention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, A. Cardarelli Hospital, 80131, Naples, Italy

    Roberto Farina, Ciro Stavolo & Luigia Romano

  2. Department of Radiology, National Cancer Institute “Fondazione Pascale”, 80131, Naples, Italy

    Orlando Catalano, Fabio Sandomenico & Antonella Petrillo

Authors
  1. Roberto Farina
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  2. Orlando Catalano
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  3. Ciro Stavolo
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  4. Fabio Sandomenico
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  5. Antonella Petrillo
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  6. Luigia Romano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Orlando Catalano.

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Farina, R., Catalano, O., Stavolo, C. et al. Emergency radiology. Radiol med 120, 73–84 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-014-0480-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11547-014-0480-2

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