Magnetic Resonance Evaluation of Pregnant Patients with Acute Abdominal Pain

Acute abdominal pain in a pregnant patient is associated with a long differential diagnosis, and diagnostic imaging is often required to guide management. Ultrasound is safe and widely available; however, maternal structures may be difficult to evaluate during pregnancy due to anatomic changes. Comp...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Seminars in ultrasound, CT, and MRI CT, and MRI, 2005-08, Vol.26 (4), p.206-211
Main Authors: Brown, Michèle A., Birchard, Katherine R., Semelka, Richard C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abdomen, Acute - diagnosis
Diagnosis, Differential
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Pregnancy
Pregnancy Complications - diagnosis
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Acute abdominal pain in a pregnant patient is associated with a long differential diagnosis, and diagnostic imaging is often required to guide management. Ultrasound is safe and widely available; however, maternal structures may be difficult to evaluate during pregnancy due to anatomic changes. Computed tomography is accurate but exposes the fetus to ionizing radiation. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides excellent anatomic resolution and tissue characterization without ionizing radiation, and MR diagnosis frequently requires no contrast administration. Using an appropriate combination of sequences, MR imaging can reliably demonstrate many causes of acute abdominal pain during pregnancy.
ISSN:0887-2171
1558-5034
DOI:10.1053/j.sult.2005.04.001