Test 12

Unlike in adults, where calcification may be often incidental/insignificant, abdominal calcification in children is frequently pathological. It can be seen in the context of benign conditions (e.g. renal calculi) but also malignant conditions (e.g. neuroblastoma). It almost always requires further investigation, typically with ultrasound in the first instance. Cystic fibrosis (CF) is an inherited condition which results in abnormally viscous mucus and secretions. Whilst the lungs are the most severely affected organ, abdominal complications are common. Distal intestinal obstruction syndrome is characterised by mucofaeculent material in the distal small bowel with a ‘bubbly soft tissue mass’ often described in the right lower quadrant on radiography, alongside clinical and radiographic features of small bowel obstruction. Other abdominal radiographic findings in patients with CF include gallstones (in up to 25% of patients) and renal calculi (in which symptomatic disease is twice as common in patients with CF than in the general population).