Value of Imaging in the Non-traumatic Acute Abdomen of Elderly Patients

The article represents the value of imaging including conventional multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) and dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) in the evaluation and diagnosis of various pathologies associated with acute abdominal pain in the elderly population.

Advances in DECT have dramatically improved the diagnostic value of CT. The various post-processing techniques offer diagnostic capability for different pathologies, not inherently available when solely using conventional MDCT. Additionally, DECT serve a complimentary role increasing confidence of the radiologist to reach an accurate diagnosis.

The geriatric population is vastly growing with visits to the emergency department increasing over time. This subset of the population exhibit higher rate of mortality approximately reaching 10%. Moreover, the elderly frequently pose clinical challenges relating to atypical presentation, delayed symptomatology, unreliable physical examination and less predictable change in vital signs. It is of no surprise, therefore, that physicians rely more frequently on imaging to reach an accurate diagnosis and streamline further management of their patients. In this review article, we describe the indispensable role of imaging; mainly MDCT and DECT for correct and reliable diagnosis of various causes of non-traumatic acute abdominal pain in the elderly population