With the low supply of IV contrast for CT’s remember that you can use your friendly ultrasound to help you diagnose a wide range of pathology. Most often there is a HIGH SPECIFICITY (so if you see it, it is probably there but not a rule out test). Over the next week we will look at 5 cases where residents have diagnosed cool pathology using ultrasound. Just remember that with great power, comes great responsibility
Appendicitis
Ultrasound has a reported high specificity (97.9) for acute appendicitis in moderate to high pre-test probability of patients.
Let’s give a shout out to Reed Macy, who diagnosed appendicitis in a male with vomiting and abdominal pain!
