Ultrasound and CT Re-Visited

Ultrasound is a logical choice to use when evaluating a patient for suspected appendicitis because it is economical, and does not utilize radiation.  Ultrasound is used to rule in appendicitis, not rule it out.  This concept is very important especially when dealing with children.  The thinking is that we would like to utilize everything possible in the evaluation that does not use radiation.  America has traditionally been too quick to send patients to the CT scanner.  It is a simple matter for the trained Sonographer or Physician to "take a look" with ultrasound.  We need to revisit these concepts.

April 18, 2011 -- NEW YORK CITY - Partially substituting ultrasound for CT in evaluating appendicitis could save the U.S. healthcare system more than $1 billion, according to research presented Saturday at the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) annual meeting.

While ultrasound has high positive predictive value for appendicitis and provides low cost and no radiation exposure, the modality appears underutilized in this application, according to Dr. Levon Nazarian. He presented the research findings on behalf of lead author Laurence Parker, PhD.

Here is the link to the article through Auntminnie:
http://www.auntminnie.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=imc&pag=dis&ItemID=94982