Special Articles
Practical diagnostic imaging for children at the pediatric hospitals

4. Acute abdomen and GI tract disease

Yoshiyuki Tsutsumi, Shunsuke Nosaka, Hidekazu Masaki
Department of Radiology, National Center for Child Health and Development

Abstract

　　In this article, we will briefly review the following four diseases, namely acute appendicitis, intususseption, internal hernia and midgut volvulus. Although internal hernia is rare in children, delay in the diagnosis may lead to a catastrophic outcome. Symptoms are often non-specific and prompt diagnosis is difficult. Patients are often misdiagnosed as acute gastroenteritis early in the disease. Plain x-ray is the first imaging in many cases : however, there is not much plain x-ray description in the pediatric imaging textbooks. We will present one case of internal hernia experienced at our hospital.
　　Ultrasound is known to be a useful diagnostic technique in many pediatric GI diseases. At the end of this article, we will present a case of juvenile polyp diagnosed with ultrasound.

Keywords：Ultrasound, Acute appendicitis, Juvenile polyp