Right upper quadrant (RUQ) pain is a common complaint that typically stimulates a workup of the hepatobiliary system. In particular, evaluation of the gallbladder (GB) is important because cholelithiasis and its complications are a frequent cause of RUQ pain. For this reason, tests used in this condition must be capable of providing accurate infor-mation about the GB. This chapter focuses on the imaging evaluation of the patient with RUQ pain and illustrates why the use of ultrasound is so important.
Gallstone disease is one of the most common causes of RUQ pain. Gallstones are present in ∼10% of the popula-tion.1In North America, 75% of gallstones are cholesterol stones; the rest are pigment stones.2 In women, factors that predispose to gallstones are increased weight, increased age, and increased parity. In men, increased age also pre-disposes to gallstones.1
Although gallstones are one of the most common causes of RUQ pain, the majority of patients with gall-stones are asymptomatic.2Imaging studies performed for other reasons often discover patients with asymptomatic (silent) gallstones. Silent gallstones tend to become symp-tomatic at a rate of∼2% per year.3,4The overall risk after 20 years is 18%.3Patients with gallstones are unlikely to de-velop symptoms after 10 to15 years of being asympto-matic. Those patients who ultimately do develop symp-toms almost always have episodes of biliary colic ﬁrst. It is very unusual for a patient to develop acute cholecystitis as the initial symptom of gallstone disease without previous incidents of colic. Based on these statistics and the known risk of cholecystectomy, it has been shown that perform-ing prophylactic cholecystectomy in asymptomatic pa-tients actually decreases their overall life expectancy and increases the cost of treatment.5For these reasons, asymp-tomatic gallstones are generally not treated surgically.
Approximately one third of all patients with gallstones will develop symptoms. Patients with symptomatic gall-stone disease generally ﬁrst seek medical attention due to bouts of biliary colic. As already mentioned, patients that ﬁrst present with acute cholecystitis will generally de-scribe previous episodes consistent with biliary colic. Dys-peptic symptoms (pyrosis, ﬂatulence, vague abdominal discomfort, and fatty food intolerance) may occur in
pa-tients with gallstones but it is hard to prove a cause-and-effect relationship because these symptoms are also very common in patients without gallstones.2
The symptom complex of biliary colic is produced when a stone obstructs the cystic duct or GB neck. Classi-cally, these patients experience acute RUQ or epigastric pain that increases in intensity over several seconds or minutes and then persists for several (usually 4 to 6) hours. The pain may begin in the RUQ and radiate to the epigas-trium or vice versa. It may occasionally be most severe in the left upper quadrant, precordium, or even the lower ab-domen.2,6Periodic exacerbations may occur during a given episode, but, in general, the pain is fairly steady (colic is a misnomer). In most cases, there is no obvious cause of bil-iary colic. In some patients, the pain is provoked by a meal. Tenderness to palpation is unusual.
Biliary colic may be relieved if the obstructing stone spontaneously disimpacts from the cystic duct or GB neck. It may also be relieved if the stone passes through the cys-tic duct and into the bile duct. If the stone subsequently obstructs the common bile duct, a second episode of iary colic may occur. The interval between attacks of bil-iary colic is very unpredictable and can vary from weeks to months to years.
Acute cholecystitis develops if there is persistent cystic duct or GB neck obstruction. This diagnosis should be con-sidered when the patient’s symptoms persist beyond 6 hours. Acute cholecystitis is manifest as persistent RUQ pain that may radiate to the right shoulder, right scapula, or interscapular area. Nausea, vomiting, chills, fever, and RUQ tenderness and guarding are common. Leukocytosis and elevations of alkaline phosphatase, aminotransferase (transaminase), and amylase may occur. Mild hyperbiliru-binemia is seen in as many as 20% of cases.7Bilirubin levels greater than 4 mg/100 mL may occur if there is common bile duct obstruction.
In addition to GB disease, many other disease processes can potentially produce RUQ pain.8These are listed in Table 1–1.In particular, liver diseases should be strongly consid-ered, including diffuse hepatic parenchymal diseases such as hepatitis (viral, alcoholic, drug induced, or toxin in-duced) or passive hepatic congestion, or focal hepatic dis-eases. Focal liver tumors can produce pain due to rapid growth, bleeding, or infarction. Hepatic abscesses, perihep-atitis (Fitz-Hugh-Curtis syndrome), hematomas, and hem-orrhagic cysts are also capable of producing RUQ pain.
Right Upper Quadrant Pain
ally presents primarily as RUQ pain. Peptic ulcer disease, colitis, ileitis, intestinal obstruction, irritable bowel syn-drome, and intestinal tumors are additional considera-tions.
The right kidney is another source of RUQ pain. Renal colic may present with atypical symptoms and be con-fused with GB disease. Pyelonephritis, renal abscess, hematoma, hemorrhagic cysts, tumors, and ischemia are other renal diseases that can cause RUQ pain.
Miscellaneous other processes to be considered in pa-tients with RUQ pain are right-lower-lobe pneumonia and pulmonary infarction, myocardial ischemia, local chest and abdominal wall lesions, local musculoskeletal lesions, right adrenal lesions, and herpes zoster.
The relative prevalence of the different causes of RUQ pain varies from institute to institute. Table 1–2 catego-rizes these causes by their approximate prevalence.
In many patients with RUQ pain, a careful history and phys-ical examination will help guide the workup in the appro-priate direction. However, the signs and symptoms of the many conditions potentially capable of causing RUQ pain overlap greatly. For this reason, there is a multitude of use-ful diagnostic tests. The most common tests are (1) liver function tests (LFTs), (2) amylase levels, (3) urinalysis, (4) white blood cell counts, and (5) electrocardiograms (ECGs). The bile ducts can also be responsible for RUQ pain.
Bil-iary colic from an obstructing common bile duct stone is probably the most frequent cause of bile duct–related RUQ pain. Cholangitis, choledochal cysts, and tumors are other possibilities.
Pancreatitis may also cause confusion because it can both simulate and coexist with GB disease. A transient episode of biliary colic may be followed by an episode of pancreatitis as the stone passes through the common duct and obstructs the pancreatic duct.
Gastrointestinal abnormalities should also be consid-ered in the differential diagnosis. Appendicitis
occasion-I The Abdomen
Table 1–1 Differential Diagnosis of Right Upper Quadrant Pain
1. Biliary colic 2. Acute cholecystitis 3. Acute pancreatitis 4. Acute appendicitis 5. Disorders of the liver
a. Acute hepatitis i. Alcoholic ii. Viral iii. Drug-related iv. Toxins b. Hepatic abscess c. Hepatic tumors i. Metastases
ii. Hepatocellular cancer iii. Hemangioma
iv. Focal nodular hyperplasia v. Hepatic adenoma d. Hemorrhagic cyst e. Hepatic congestion
i. Budd-Chiari syndrome ii. Acute hepatic congestion 6. Disorders of the bile ducts
a. Bile duct obstruction b. Cholangitis
7. Disorders of the intestines
a. Peripyloric ulcers with or without perforation b. Small bowel obstruction
c. Irritable bowel d. Colitis e. Ileitis
f. Intestinal tumors
8. Costochondritis of the lower right anterior chest 9. Perihepatitis due to gonococcal or chlamydial infection
10. Pleuroabdominal pain due to pneumonia or pulmonary infarction
11. Disorders of the right kidney a. Acute pyelonephritis b. Ureteral calculus c. Renal or perirenal abscess d. Renal infarction
e. Renal tumor 12. Unknown causes 13. Herpes zoster
Table 1–2 Causes of Right Upper Quadrant Pain
Common Uncommon Rare
Biliary colic Drug-related and Budd-Chiari toxic hepatitis syndrome
hemangioma Acute Hepatic abscess Hepatic adenoma
Acute Hepatocellular Focal nodular appendicitis carcinoma hyperplasia Alcoholic Ascending
Viral hepatitis Acute pyelonephritis Pneumonia/ pleuritis Hepatic Renal tumor Renal abscess
Irritable bowel Peptic ulcer disease Perinephric abscess
Costochondritis Renal infraction
Unknown cases Perihepatitis
LFTs are among the most useful initial laboratory tests because certain abnormalities strongly suggest hepatobil-iary disease. In addition, the pattern of abnormality on LFTs can point toward liver parenchymal processes or bil-iary processes. (Please see the chapter on evaluation of ab-normal LFTs .) Renal, pancreatic, and cardiac abab-normalities can be identiﬁed in many cases by obtaining a urinalysis, a serum amylase level, and an ECG.
Imaging Tests other than Ultrasound
The initial imaging tests in patients with RUQ pain should be radiographs of the chest and abdomen. These are rapid and inexpensive ways of evaluating the patient for pul-monary and intestinal sources of pain. In addition, abdom-inal radiographs can detect calciﬁcations in the kidney, ureter, appendix, and pancreas. Gallstones that are sufﬁ-ciently calciﬁed to be radiopaque (10 to 15% of cases) can also be detected. Rarely, gallstones will contain enough gas to be visible on radiographs. Therefore, although abdomi-nal radiographs may reveal gallstones, a negative study does not exclude the diagnosis.
If the patient presents with suspected biliary colic and the preliminary tests fail to suggest an alternative source of pain, then the GB should be evaluated to determine the presence or absence of gallstones. In addition to abdomi-nal radiographs, there are several imaging tests that are ca-pable of detecting gallstones. The sensitivity of these vari-ous tests is indicated in Table 1–3.
Computed tomography (CT) is much better at detecting small degrees of calciﬁcation than plain radiography and is therefore more sensitive at detecting gallstones. CT can also detect some cholesterol stones that are less dense than surrounding bile as well as stones that contain gas. In addition, unlike abdominal radiography, CT can determine the anatomical location of a calciﬁcation and conﬁrm that it is in the GB. Unfortunately, at least 20% of gallstones have the same attenuation as bile and are not detectable with CT.9For this reason, CT is useful when positive but not useful when negative.
Oral cholecystography (OCG) was the preferred means of diagnosing gallstones for many years. When the GB is well opaciﬁed, OCG is similar to sonography in its ability to detect and exclude gallstones. Sensitivity decreases some-what if opaciﬁcation is faint on an OCG. In ∼25% of OCGs, the GB is not opaciﬁed. If nonvisualization of the GB is
con-sidered a positive result, then the sensitivity of OCG for de-tecting stones is as high as 90 to 95%.10,11Unfortunately, there are many nonbiliary causes of nonvisualization. These include failure to take the contrast, vomiting, diar-rhea, fasting, hiatal hernia, proximal intestinal obstruction, proximal intestinal diverticulum, malabsorption, and liver disease.11Therefore, nonvisualization of the GB is less spe-ciﬁc for gallstones than the typical ﬁnding of a mobile ﬁll-ing defect in a well-opaciﬁed GB. If a nonvisualized GB is considered an inconclusive result, then the sensitivity of OCG is 65%.10 Currently, OCG is mostly of historic signiﬁ-cance and is almost never performed.
Many investigations performed in the late 1970s and early 1980s analyzed the effectiveness of sonography in detect-ing gallstones. Despite usdetect-ing static scanners and ﬁrst-gen-eration real-time equipment, these studies almost all showed that sonography was highly accurate (> 90%) in detecting gallstones. Since then, sonography has essen-tially replaced the OCG for the detection of gallstones. Data from slightly more recent studies continue to support this approach. One blinded prospective comparison of these techniques showed a sonographic sensitivity of 93% and an OCG sensitivity of 65%.10In this same study, if a nonvisual-ized GB on OCG was considered positive for gallstones, then the sensitivity of OCG increased to 87%. Another study on patients who were morbidly obese showed a sonographic sensitivity of 91% and speciﬁcity of 100%. In this patient population, which is not ideal for sonography, the negative predictive value was still very high at 97%.12
The typical sonographic appearance of a gallstone is a mobile, shadowing, echogenic structure in the lumen of the GB (Fig. 1–1). The positive predictive value of this triad of ﬁndings is 100%. When shadowing is not detected, the differential includes gallstones and tumefactive sludge. Small, mobile, nonshadowing intraluminal structures are generally gallstones (Fig. 1–2). On the other hand, tume-factive sludge generally forms larger masslike aggregates (Fig. 1–3). There is some degree of overlap in the appear-ance of small gallstones and sludgeballs and, occasionally, a follow-up sonogram is helpful in distinguishing these two possibilities. Nonmobile, nonshadowing structures represent adherent sludge balls or polyps (Fig. 1–4).13GB cancer can appear as a polypoid mass and can potentially simulate a benign polyp or tumefactive sludge (Fig. 1–5A). Detection of mobility and vascularity is important in dis-tinguishing these possibilities (Fig. 1–5B,C).
As already indicated, the documentation of acoustic shadowing is very important in the differential diagnosis of gallstones. To optimize the detection of acoustic shad-owing requires a transducer of the highest possible fre-quency focused at the depth of the gallstone. Changes in the patient’s position may help by clumping multiple stones together and thereby increasing the collective
at-Table 1–3 Sensitivity of Imaging Tests for Gallstones
Test Sensitivity (%) Radiography 15 Computed tomography 80 Oral cholecystography 65 to 90 Ultrasound 95 AQ2 AQ3 AQ4
A B Figure 1–1 Typical gallstone. (A)Longitudinal scan shows a
shadow-ing echogenic structure (arrow) near the neck of the gallbladder. (B)
Longitudinal scan with the patient in a left lateral decubitus position
documents mobility of this stone (arrow), which is now seen in the body of the gallbladder.
Figure 1–2 Small nonshadowing gallstones. (A)Longitudinal scan using a 4 MHz transducer shows several small (2 mm) echogenic foci in the fundus of the gallbladder. No acoustic shadow-ing is apparent. (B)Longitudinal scan using a 7 MHz linear array trans-ducer shows similar ﬁndings. Although this sonographic appearance can, in general, be seen with sludge and stones, it is common to be unable to detect shadowing in stones this small. It is very uncommon for sludge to aggregate into multiple, small, well-formed foci like this.
Figure 1–3 Tumefactive sludge. (A)Longitudinal scan with the pa-tient in a supine position demonstrates a nonshadowing masslike structure (s) in the gallbladder neck. The differential diagnosis based on this single image is primarily that of a gallbladder tumor versus
tumefactive sludge. (B)Longitudinal scan with the patient sitting documents mobility of this mass (s) and conﬁrms that it represents tumefactive sludge.
tenuation. Changing the transducer position may alter the tissues displayed behind the GB and make shadowing eas-ier to visualize.
Although sonography is very good at detecting gall-stones, false-negative exams do occur. Up to one out of 20
patients with gallstones will be missed by sonography. Therefore, if the clinical suspicion is extremely high, it is reasonable to do a follow-up ultrasound after a negative ultrasound. Reasons for a false-negative ultrasound exam include a contracted GB (Fig. 1–6), a GB in an anomalous or unusual location, small stones, stones impacted in the GB neck or cystic duct (Fig. 1–7), immobile patients, obese pa-tients, or patients with extensive RUQ bowel gas.
Once gallstones are documented in a patient with RUQ pain, the next issue is whether the patient should undergo cholecystectomy. If the RUQ pain is clinically consistent with biliary colic, then ∼40% of patients will have contin-ued symptoms and 25% will have worsening symptoms. Because of this, surgery is ultimately necessary in ∼45% of these patients.4The percentage of patients opting for sur-gery is likely to go up now that laparoscopic cholecystec-tomy is so widely available. Surgery is usually performed when the episodes of biliary colic are frequent or severe enough to seriously interfere with a patient’s lifestyle or when there is a history of complications such as acute cholecystitis, pancreatitis, or cholangitis.
As with biliary colic, sonography is very valuable in pa-tients presenting with suspected acute cholecystitis. Sono-graphic ﬁndings in acute cholecystitis are (1) gallstones,
Figure 1–4 Gallbladder polyp. Transverse view demonstrates a small, round, nonshadowing lesion arising from the nondependent wall of the gallbladder (arrow). Views in multiple positions docu-mented the lack of mobility of these lesions, and the sonographic ﬁndings are typical of a cholesterol polyp.
Figure 1–5 Gallbladder carcinoma. (A)Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates shadowing stones (straight arrow) and nonshadowing echogenic material (curved arrow) in the dependent portion of the gallbladder. The straight border between this mate-rial and the lumen of the gallbladder simulates the appearance of layering sludge. (B)Longitudinal power Doppler image documents the presence of internal vascularity within this echogenic material and conﬁrms that this represents vascularized soft tissue rather than layering sludge. Its lack of mobility was demonstrated on upright views. (C) Doppler waveform analysis documents arterial flow within the mass, which was histologically conﬁrmed to represent gallbladder carcinoma.
I The Abdomen
Figure 1–7 Cystic duct stones. (A)Initial longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates a contracted gallbladder (gb) but no evi-dence of gallstones. (B)Repeat view of the gallbladder (gb) better demonstrates the gallbladder neck and cystic duct (arrowheads) and conﬁrms the presence of two small gallstones (arrows) within the
cystic duct. Stones in this location are one potential cause of false-negative sonograms. For this reason, careful attention to the gall-bladder neck is very important during real-time scanning. (From Kurtz AB, Middleton WD, eds. Ultrasound: The Requisites. St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook; 1996. Reprinted with permission.)
Figure 1–6 Contracted gallbladder ﬁlled with multiple small stones.
(A)Longitudinal view of the right upper quadrant demonstrates a re-gion of clean shadowing (s) adjacent to the inferior edge of the liver. Note the echogenic linear structure (arrow) that extends from the shadowing focus to the region of the portal hepatis. This echogenic line represents the interlobar ﬁssure. (B)Transverse scan through the liver identiﬁes the interlobar ﬁssure (arrow) separating the left (L) and right (R) lobes of the liver. (C)Transverse scan obtained immediately inferior to the level shown in (B)conﬁrms that the echogenic shad-owing structures (curved arrow) arise immediately inferior to the interlobar ﬁssure. In addition, this image demonstrates the wall-echo-shadow complex that is typical of gallstones within a con-tracted gallbladder. Although stones are more difﬁcult to diagnose in a completely contracted gallbladder, this case illustrates that careful scrutiny of the expected region of the gallbladder fossa can usually identify stones even in a very contracted gallbladder. s, shadow.
(2) GB wall thickening of greater than 3 mm, (3) GB en-largement greater than 4 10 cm, (4) positive sonographic Murphy’s sign, (5) pericholecystic ﬂuid, and (6) impacted gallstones. The diagnostic value of several of the most im-portant individual ﬁndings is shown in Table 1–4.14,15The diagnostic value of different combinations of these ﬁnd-ings is shown in Table 1–5.
Approximately 95% of cases of acute cholecystitis are related to cystic duct obstruction due to gallstones. There-fore, detection of gallstones is very important in the sono-graphic diagnosis of acute cholecystitis. In most cases, freely mobile stones will be seen in the GB lumen, and the actual obstructing stone in the cystic duct will not be seen. When a stone is impacted in the GB neck, it is usually
visi-ble. Occasionally, small stones impacted in the cystic duct can also be detected. Acalculous cholecystitis may occur in extremely sick patients following major surgery, serious trauma, extensive burns, or prolonged parenteral nutri-tion. Therefore, in this patient population the absence of stones is not a reliable means of excluding the diagnosis, and secondary sonographic signs of cholecystitis, de-scribed later, must be relied upon. Although some centers have reported good results in the sonographic diagnosis of acalculous cholecystitis,16it is often a difﬁcult diagnosis to make or exclude by sonography or any other means.
GB wall thickening (deﬁned as 3 mm or greater) occurs to some degree in the majority of cases of acute cholecys-titis (Fig. 1–8). The positive predictive value of gallstones and wall thickening is as high as 94%. However, it is impor-tant to remember that asymptomatic gallstones are com-mon and there are many causes of GB wall thickening be-sides cholecystitis (Table 1–6). In fact, the nonbiliary
Table 1–4Analysis of Single Sonographic Criteria for Diagnosis of Acute Cholecystitis Sensitivity Speciﬁcity PPV NPV (%) (%) (%) (%) Stones 83–98 52–77 86 96 Positive 75–94 85–87 88 72 Murphy’s sign Thickened 45–72 76–88 84 56 gallbladder wall
Source:Reprinted with permission From Laing FC, Federle MP, Jeffrey RB, Brown TW. Ultrasonic evaluation of patients with acute right up-per quadrant pain. Radiology 1981;140:449–455 and Ralls PW, Col-letti PM, Lapin SA, et al. Real time sonography in suspected acute cholecystitis: Prospective evaluation of primary and secondary signs. Radiology 1985;155:767–771 in which the prevalence of acute chole-cystitis was 35 and 62%, respectively.
PPV, positive predictive value; NPV, negative predictive value.
Table 1–5 Predictive Values of Multiple Sonographic Criteria for Diagnosis of Acute Cholecystitisa
Findings Value (%)
Stones and positive Murphy’s sign 90 Stones and thickened gallbladder wall 94 Stones, positive Murphy’s sign, and 92
thickened gallbladder wall Negative
No stones and negative Murphy’s sign 97 No stones and normal gallbladder wall 98 No stones, negative Murphy’s sign,
and normal gallbladder wall 99 Source:Reprinted with permission from Ralls PW, Colletti PM, Lapin SA, et al. Real time sonography in suspected acute cholecystitis: prospective evaluation of primary and secondary signs. Radiology 1985;155:767–771. Data were obtained from a patient population with a 62% prevalence of acute cholecystitis.
Figure 1–8 Acute cholecystitis with gallbladder wall thickening. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates two stones (s) in the gallbladder. The gallbladder wall is diffusely thickened (arrows). This patient also demonstrated a positive sonographic Murphy’s sign, and these ﬁndings are typical of acute cholecystitis. (From Kurtz AB, Middleton WD, eds. Ultrasound: The Requisites. St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook; 1996. Reprinted with permission.)
Table 1–6 Causes of Gallbladder Wall Thickening
Cancer Heart failure
Acquired immunodeﬁciency Hypoproteinemia syndrome cholangiopathy
Sclerosing cholangitis Cirrhosis
Portal hypertension Lymphatic obstruction
wall thickening, assessment of the sonographic Murphy’s sign is critical. Hepatobiliary scintigraphy is also an ex-tremely valuable technique in this type of situation (Fig. 1–9).
GB enlargement is also commonly present in patients with cholecystitis (Fig. 1–10A). The upper limits of normal for the size of the GB are 8 to 10 cm in length and 4 to 5 cm in width. The width is clearly the more important dimen-sion due to the normal variation in GB length. In other words, a long, thin GB is much less worrisome than a short, wide GB.
Pericholecystic ﬂuid is present in ∼20% of patients with acute cholecystitis (Fig. 1–11). Recognizing this ﬂuid is im-portant because it implies a more advanced case of chole-cystitis. It is usually seen as a focal collection adjacent to the GB wall. It should be distinguished from GB wall edema, which is more concentric, and pericholecystic as-cites, which is less masslike and conforms to the shape of the GB and adjacent structures. In addition to sonography, CT is occasionally very helpful in determining the full ex-tent of pericholecystic ﬂuid collections. Although CT is rarely used as the initial imaging test in patients with sus-pected acute cholecystitis, it can provide useful informa-tion in cases of complicated cholecystitis that are difﬁcult to fully sort out with sonography. CT can also be useful in distinguishing complicated cholecystitis from GB carci-noma.
In addition to pericholecystic ﬂuid, other signs of com-plicated cholecystitis include sloughed mucosal mem-branes (a rare ﬁnding), localized disruption of the mucosal layer of the GB wall (Fig. 1–12), striated intramural sonolu-cencies (Fig. 1–13), frank perforation of the GB (Fig. 1–14), and intramural gas (Fig. 1–15). Patients with these ﬁnd-causes of GB wall thickening are generally the source of
the most dramatic GB wall thickening. In patients with suspected acute cholecystitis and sonographic ﬁndings of gallstones and wall thickening, it is important to deter-mine if there are possible nonbiliary causes for the thick GB wall. If there are other potential explanations for the
I The Abdomen
Figure 1–10 Acute cholecystitis with gallbladder enlargement. (A)
Longitudinal view of the gallbladder in a left lateral decubitus posi-tion demonstrates sludge (sl) and stones (s) in the gallbladder fundus as well as mild wall thickening. The gallbladder is also enlarged,
measuring 5 to 12 cm in size. (B)Longitudinal view of the gallbladder in an upright position demonstrates mobile sludge (sl) and stones (s) but also shows a stone impacted in the gallbladder neck/cystic duct (curved arrow).
Figure 1–9 Gallbladder wall thickening not due to acute cholecysti-tis. Transverse view of the gallbladder demonstrates diffuse wall thickening (arrows) and a gallstone (s). This patient had congestive heart failure and diffuse right upper quadrant tenderness. The gall-bladder wall thickening was felt to be related to either acute chole-cystitis or congestive heart failure. Gallbladder scintigraphy was recommended for further evaluation. It demonstrated normal ﬁlling of the gallbladder, thus excluding acute cholecystitis as the cause of this patient’s thick gallbladder wall.
Figure 1–11 Cholecystitis with pericholecystic ﬂuid. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder in a patient in the intensive care unit demon-strates sludge (sl) and a stone (s) in the gallbladder lumen. Also seen is loculated pericholecystic ﬂuid (f) around the gallbladder fundus
and over the anterior surface of the liver (l). Figure 1–12 Cholecystitis with mucosal disruption. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates intraluminal sludge (sl) and stones (s). In addition, there is a region of mucosal disruption (arrow) along the superior wall of the gallbladder with ﬂuid dissecting be-neath the mucosa. This is a sign of complicated cholecystitis and in-dicates gallbladder wall necrosis. (From Kurtz AB, Middleton WD, eds. Ultrasound: The Requisites. St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook; 1996. Reprinted with permission.)
Figure 1–13 Acute cholecystitis with gallbladder wall necrosis. Transverse view of the gallbladder demonstrates stones (s) layering in the dependent portion of the gallbladder. Wall thickening with stri-ated intramural sonolucencies (arrows) is detected along the lateral gallbladder wall. Although striated intramural sonolucencies are typ-ically seen in patients with gallbladder wall thickening due to sources other than acute cholecystitis, in the setting of acute cholecystitis, this appearance suggests gallbladder wall necrosis. (From Kurtz AB, Middleton WD, eds. Ultrasound: The Requisites. St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook; 1996. Reprinted with permission.)
Figure 1–14 Acute cholecystitis with perforation. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder (gb) shows a well deﬁned defect in the anterior wall (arrows). A ﬂuid collection (f) is seen dissecting into the liver parenchyma.
tive when pressure applied with the transducer elicits ten-derness only over the GB or when maximum tenten-derness is located over the GB. A convincingly positive Murphy’s sign is strong evidence of acute cholecystitis. The combination of gallstones and a positive sonographic Murphy’s sign has a positive predictive value as high as 90%. A negative sono-graphic Murphy’s sign is less helpful. Causes of a false-neg-ative Murphy’s sign include patient nonresponsiveness, pain medication, or inability to press directly on the GB (due to excessive ascites, a GB that is positioned very deep to the liver or a GB that is located deep to the ribs). Another important cause of a negative Murphy’s sign is GB wall necrosis (Fig. 1–16). This occurs presumably due to dam-age to the GB innervation.17When the Murphy’s sign is dif-ﬁcult to assess, scintigraphy can be helpful in determining the signiﬁcance of morphological changes seen on sonog-raphy.
The other major means of imaging patients with sus-pected acute cholecystitis is hepatobiliary scintigraphy. Scintigraphy is an excellent means of determining patency of the cystic duct and presence or absence of acute chole-cystitis. Sensitivity of cholescintigraphy has been reported to range from 86 to 97% and speciﬁcity from 73 to 100%.18–24 Sonographic sensitivity ranges from 81 to 100%, and speci-ﬁcity ranges from 60 to 100%.14,19–21,24The bulk of evidence indicates that sensitivity and speciﬁcity of sonography and scintigraphy are very similar. Therefore, the choice of ini-tial imaging modalities is often made based on the prefer-ences of the referring clinician and local expertise of the radiologist. Although either approach is acceptable, there are several good reasons to start the imaging evaluation with sonography.
ings of gangrenous cholecystitis have a higher morbidity and mortality than patients with uncomplicated cholecys-titis and require either or both more aggressive medical treatment and more urgent surgical treatment.
The sonographic Murphy’s sign refers to localized ten-derness directly over the GB. This sign is considered
posi-I The Abdomen
Figure 1–15 Emphysematous cholecystitis. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates very bright reﬂectors (curved arrow) in the nondependent portion of the gallbladder wall. A dirty shadow (s) is seen deep to these bright reﬂectors. In addition, a ring down artifact (straight arrows) is identiﬁed. The ring down artifact is pathogno-monic of gas and allows for a conﬁdent diagnosis of emphysematous cholecystitis.
Figure 1–16 False-negative sonographic Murphy’s sign in the set-ting of gallbladder wall necrosis. (A)Longitudinal view of the gall-bladder with the patient supine demonstrates sludge (sl) in the lumen of the gallbladder. In addition, a gallstone is seen in the region of the gallbladder neck (curved arrow). (B)Similar view with the
pa-tient standing upright demonstrates migration of the sludge (sl) into the gallbladder fundus but no motion of the stone (curved arrow) in the gallbladder neck. This suggests stone impaction in the gallblad-der neck. Mild gallbladgallblad-der wall thickening is also present.
1. Most patients with acute RUQ pain do not have acute cholecystitis. Sonography can rapidly exclude the diag-nosis of cholecystitis by showing a stone-free GB (Fig. 1–17and Fig. 1–18).
2. Sonography is more likely to provide an alternative di-agnosis14,19than is scintigraphy (Fig. 1–17and Fig. 1–18). 3. Sonography is more capable of establishing the
pres-ence of symptomatic gallstone disease in patients with biliary colic (Fig. 1–19) but without acute chole-cystitis.21In fact, the positive predictive value of
sonog-raphy for detecting patients who need a cholecystec-tomy is ∼99%.15Occasionally, sonography may falsely classify patients with symptomatic gallstones as hav-ing acute cholecystitis, but the impact of this type of false-positive diagnosis is minimal because laparo-scopic cholecystectomy is a well-accepted treatment for biliary colic and chronic cholecystitis.
4. Sonography can provide important preoperative infor-mation that is not readily available from scintigraphy (Fig. 1–20). This includes information about the size of
Figure 1–16(Continued) (C)Transverse view of the gallbladder demon-strates an area of mucosal disruption (arrow) with a small amount of ﬂuid dissecting beneath the mucosa. This patient presented as an outpatient with vague upper abdominal pain and a negative Murphy’s sign. Although acute cholecystitis was not a major clinical consideration, the morpholog-ical changes seen on sonography in conjunction with a negative Murphy’s sign suggested acute cholecystitis with necrosis. Based on this, the pa-tient was operated on later that day, and the sonographic ﬁndings were conﬁrmed.
Figure 1–17 Ruptured hepatocellular carcinoma masquerading as acute cholecystitis. (A)Longitudinal view of the right upper quadrant in a patient with resolving right upper quadrant pain demonstrates a normal gallbladder (gb) without evidence of stones or wall thicken-ing. (B)Longitudinal view of the superior aspect of the liver (l) demonstrates an inhomogeneous mass (m) adjacent to the liver
cap-sule. Echogenic blood clot (c) is seen between the liver and the ab-dominal wall (w). Echogenic ascites was also seen in the pelvis on other views. Based on the sonographic ﬁndings, a diagnosis of a rup-tured hepatic mass with hemoperitoneum was made. The patient was then taken to the operating room where a ruptured hepatocellu-lar carcinoma was conﬁrmed.
or a positive hepatobiliary scan (see reason number 4 above). On the other hand, positive and negative sono-grams do not need to be followed by scintigraphy. The ACR guidelines for imaging patients with suspected acute cholecystitis indicate that either sonography or scintigraphy is appropriate. However, sonography is given a higher score than scintigraphy for the reasons already in-dicated. Practice guidelines issued in 1988 by the Ameri-can College of Physicians also recommended using sonog-the GB and sonog-the size of sonog-the largest stone, sonog-the
appear-ance of the GB wall, the presence of pericholecystic ﬂuid, the presence of common bile duct stones, and the status of adjacent organs (especially liver, right kidney, and pancreas). This information is more impor-tant in the current era of laparoscopic surgery because the surgeon is no longer able to carefully inspect and palpate the upper abdominal organs.
5.It is common to do sonography after either a negative hepatobiliary scan (see reasons number 2 and 3 above)
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Figure 1–18 Ruptured duodenal ulcer simulating acute cholecysti-tis. (A)Longitudinal view of the gallbladder (gb) demonstrates no ev-idence of gallstones. Ascites (a) is seen in the perihepatic region. (B)
Longitudinal scan in the peripyloric region demonstrates marked
thickening of the bowel wall (cursors). This was interpreted as repre-senting either neoplastic inﬁltration or inﬂammatory thickening due to ulcer disease. The patient was subsequently shown to have a per-forated duodenal ulcer.
Figure 1–19 Symptomatic gallstone disease without evidence of acute cholecystitis. (A)Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demon-strates multiple stones (s), mild gallbladder wall thickening, and mild gallbladder contraction. At the time this patient was scanned, there was no localized tenderness over the gallbladder. However, she had previously experienced a severe episode of right upper quadrant pain
that lasted for 3 hours and was now resolving. (B)Longitudinal view of the normal diameter distal bile duct (arrows) demonstrates a shad-owing echogenic focus (curved arrow) consistent with a small distal common bile duct stone. This provides convincing evidence that the patient’s recent pain was due to biliary colic as a stone passed through the cystic duct and into the common bile duct.
raphy as the ﬁrst imaging test for suspected acute chole-cystitis.25,26 Although both of these groups prefer to start with sonography in the evaluation of patients with sus-pected acute cholecystitis, scintigraphy should be recog-nized as a powerful problem solver when the sonogram is confusing or inconclusive. This may occur in up to 20% of patients with clinically suspected acute cholecystitis in whom ultrasound is done ﬁrst. Therefore, cholescintigra-phy continues to play an important role in the evaluation of acute cholecystitis.
Treatment for acute cholecystitis can initially be conser-vative with pain medication, IV hydration, and antibiotics. Approximately 75% of patients will respond to medical therapy. The rest either will be refractory to conservative treatment or will develop complications and require sur-gery. Of the patients that initially respond to medical treat-ment, recurrent cholecystitis will occur within 1 year in 25% and within 6 years in 60%. Therefore, the current ap-proach is to perform cholecystectomy during or after the ﬁrst episode of acute cholecystitis. The exact timing of the cholecystectomy is not uniformly agreed upon. It appears that early laparoscopic cholecystectomy is most effective if performed on patients presenting within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms. Early cholecystectomy may also be necessary if the patient fails to respond to medical treat-ment. Delayed cholecystectomy is generally reserved for patients presenting after 48 hours, for those patients at in-creased operative risk, or for those patients in whom the diagnosis is unclear. Emergent cholecystectomy is reserved for patients that are clinically unstable or patients with complications identiﬁed clinically or on imaging studies.
Sonography is the primary imaging modality for evalua-tion of RUQ pain. It is more effective at diagnosing and evaluating gallstones than any other imaging test. OCG has been largely abandoned. However, gallstones are well quantiﬁed by OCGs and if dissolution therapy or litho-tripsy become more popular in the future, OCG may be-come more important. Sonography is similar in accuracy to scintigraphy in the evaluation of suspected acute cholecystitis and provides additional information that is not available on scintigraphy. Cholescintigraphy is a valu-able test of GB function that is very useful in the evalua-tion of suspected acute cholecystitis when ultrasound is confusing or indeterminate. CT is not a primary modality in the evaluation of RUQ pain but is very useful in further evaluating complicated cholecystitis and GB neoplasm. CT may be useful in the diagnosis of acute acalculous cholecystitis.
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4. McSherry CK, Ferstenberg H, Calhoun WF, Lahman E, Virshup M. The natural history of diagnosed gallstone disease in symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Ann Surg 1984;202:59–63
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Figure 1–20 Acute cholecystitis with marked intramural ﬂuid collec-tions. Longitudinal view of the gallbladder demonstrates a stone (s) impacted in the gallbladder neck. Multiple ﬂuid collections (f) are seen in the thickened gallbladder wall. Communication between the gallbladder lumen and the anterior intramural ﬂuid collection is ap-parent. Identiﬁcation of this severe gallbladder wall abnormality pro-vides important preoperative information to the patient’s surgeon. (From Kurtz AB, Middleton WD, eds. Ultrasound: The Requisites. St. Louis: Mosby Yearbook; 1996. Reprinted with permission.)
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25. No authors listed. How to study the gallbladder: Health and Policy Committee. Ann Intern Med 1988;109:752–754
26. Marton KI, Doubilet P. How to image the gallbladder in suspected acute cholecystitis. Ann Intern Med 1988;109:722–729
15. Ralls PW, Colletti PM, Lapin SA, et al. Real time sonography in sus-pected acute cholecystitis: prospective evaluation of primary and secondary signs. Radiology 1985;155:767–771
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17. Simeone JF, Brink JA, Mueller PR, et al. The sonographic diagnosis of acute gangrenous cholecystitis: importance of the Murphy sign. AJR Am J Roentgenol 1989;152:289–290
18. Samuels BI, Freitas JE, Bree RL, Schwab RE, Heller ST. A comparison of radionuclide hepatobiliary imaging and real-time ultrasound for the detection of acute cholecystitis. Radiology 1983;147:207–210 19. Shuman WP, Mack LA, Rudd TG, Rogers JV, Gibbs P. Evaluation of
acute right upper quadrant pain: sonography and 99mTcPIPIDA cholescintigraphy. AJR Am J Roentgenol 1982;139:61–64
20. Ralls PW, Colletti PM, Halls JM, Siemsen JK. Prospective evaluation of 99mTc-IDA cholescintigraphy and gray-scale ultrasound in the diagnosis of acute cholecystitis. Radiology 1982;144:369–371
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AQ1 Au: Removing middle initial D. for consistency with LOC. OK?
AQ2 Au: change okay?
AQ3 Au: please specify chapter number in cross reference. AQ4 Au: the subject is “detection,” correct? or do you mean “Vascularity and detection of mobility are important . . . “? AQ5 Au: legend for figure 1-16 says false-negative, not negative. Please reconcile.
AQ6 Au: please spell out first use of ACR. AQ7 Au: Ref. 24, changed as meant? AQ8 Au: 5d changed as meant?