Sawyer David,  Mushtaq Raza,  Vedantham Srinivasan,  Udayasankar Unni

Final Pr. ID: Paper #: 096

Acute appendicitis represents an important cause of abdominal pain in pediatric patients. Although imaging plays an increasingly important role in the rapid diagnosis and management of this condition, there is no universally accepted strategy for imaging children suspected of having acute appendicitis. Ultrasound and computed tomography have been used most commonly, but there is rising interest in the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) due to its lack of ionizing radiation or need for intravenous contrast. Recent research has shown that MRI has high diagnostic performance when employed as a first-line test. However, when considering the generalizability of MRI outside of a specialized tertiary care center, the question of operator dependence arises. To determine the performance of MRI when interpreted by readers with limited experience, we performed a retrospective review of preliminary MRI interpretations rendered by radiology residents at our institution, compared with final (attending radiologist) interpretations. Read More

Authors:  Sawyer David , Mushtaq Raza , Vedantham Srinivasan , Udayasankar Unni

Keywords:  Acute appendicitis, Magnetic resonance imaging