Imaging and laboratory testing in acute abdominal pain.
Panebianco NL, Jahnes K, Mills AM
Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Ground Ravdin, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA. Nova.panebianco@uphs.upenn.edu
When discussing which laboratory tests or imaging to order in the setting of acute abdominal pain, it is practical to organize information by disease process (eg, acute appendicitis, cholecystitis). Because studies on the accuracy of diagnostic tests are of necessity related to the presence or absence of specific diagnoses, and because clinicians frequently look to tests to help them rule in or rule out specific conditions, this article is organized by region of pain and common abdominal diagnoses. It focuses on the contributions that laboratory testing and imaging make in the emergency management of abdominal complaints.
Published 25 April 2011 in Emerg Med Clin North Am, 29(2): 175-93, vii.
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