Patients who have disease of the biliary tract commonly present with acute right upper quadrant pain, nausea or vomiting, mid-epigastric pain, and/or jaundice. Etiologies include inflammation with or without infection, noninflammatory disorders, and benign or malignant neoplasms of the gallbladder or bile ducts. Ultrasound (US) is now accepted as the initial imaging modality of choice for the work-up of suspected biliary tract disease. A retrospective study was carried out at King Abdulaziz University Hospital to discuss the protocol of ultrasound scanning in demonstrating incidence and complication of Gall-bladder (GB) pathologies. Known cases of GB pathologies (100 patients) were surveyed by ultrasound using spatial digital iU22 Philips Convex probe 3.5 MHz. All patients were evaluated with ultrasonogphy following the international scanning guidelines and protocols. The age of the patients is between (9-90) years, 68 Patients (68%) were females and 32 patients (32%) were males. Range of age group of accumulation for gallstone presence was (35-50) years in females and above 50 years in males. Incidence of gallbladder pathologies are 59% (female 46% and 13% male). Incidence of gallstone is 37%, and ratio of incidence is between male to female 1:3. Other pathologies of gallbladder were found to be acute cholecystities 12%, chronic cholocystities 5%, sludge 2%, carcinoma of the Gall-bladder 1%, Gall-bladder polyps 1% and Emphysematous choleycystities 1%. Ultransonography is a single imaging modality sufficient for evaluation of patient with suspected gallbladder pathologies (gallstone) which can provide information about the presence of gallstone and more over about site and cause of biliary tract obstruction. Ultrasound is highly sensitive and specific means for diagnosis of the gallbladder disorders.

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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of real-time ultrasound elastography (RUE) in differentiating benign from malignant thyroid nodules, with fine needle aspiration cytology analysis as the reference standard. A total of 78 consecutive patients with thyroid nodules who were selected for fine needle aspiration biopsies were examined in this prospective study. 78 nodules in these patients were examined by conventional ultrasound, and ultrasound elastography. The final diagnosis was obtained from cytological findings. Tissue stiffness on ultrasound elastography was scored from 1 (low stiffness over the entire nodule) to 5 (high stiffness over the entire nodule and surrounding tissue). On real-time ultrasound elastography, 47 of 62 benign nodules (76%) had a score of 1 or 2, whereas 15 of 16 malignant nodules had a score of 3 to 5, with sensitivity of 93.7%, specificity of 90%, a positive predictive value of 71%, and a negative predictive value of 98%. Real-time ultrasound elastography is a promising imaging technique that is useful in the differential diagnosis of thyroid cancer. Utilization of ultrasound elastography could reduce the rate of thyroid biopsies because of its high elasticity being highly associated with benign cytology.

(SNs, ≤1cm, n=124) and large (LNs, >1Cm, n=178) nodules. Microcalcifications were more frequent in malignant LNs than in malignant SNs, but showed no significant difference between benign LNs and SNs. Poorly-circumscribed margins were not significantly different between malignant SNs and LNs, but were less frequent in benign LNs than in benign SNs. Among all nodules, marked intranodular vascularity was more frequent in LNs than in SNs. By comparison, shape ratio of anteroposterior to transverse dimensions (A/T) ≥1 was less frequent in LNs than

The acute abdomen is one of the most frequent causes for presentation to the emergency department. Imaging plays an important role for an accurate diagnosis, which in turn diminishes morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study was to demonstrate optimum CT aspects and emphasize on the important features of CT for those patients presenting with an acute abdominal pain at the Emergency Department both in general and in a number of selected conditions (appendicitis, small-bowel obstruction, acute pancreatitis, and diverticulitis). The reported data by this study are based on the author working experience, which forms a continuous protocol adjustment process. The present study provides evidence that CT would result in definite diagnosis of patients with abdominal pain in terms of the detection of some urgent conditions.