Plain Magnetic Resonance (MR) in the Assessment of Patients With Acute Abdomen

Assessment of Patients With Nontraumatic Acute Abdominal Pain With Plain MR of the Abdomen - a Comparison With CT

At present, CT is the gold standard in the assessment of patients with acute abdomen. Yet, one CT of the abdomen exposes patients to a radiation dose equivalent to several years of background radiation. MR can be expected to yield the same information without ionizing radiation, but tends to be more time consuming. In this study, patients with nontraumatic acute abdominal pain referred to CT of the abdomen by the department of surgery will also have performed an additional MR scan covering the entire abdomen with few fast imaging sequences in approximately 15min. CT is the diagnostic test. The MR scan is only used for scientific purposes. It will be evaluated by a radiologist blinded for the results of the CT scan. Fourteen days after admission, a final diagnosis is established based on clinical, peroperative, pathological and lab. findings. The performance of CT and MR will then be compared. The investigators hypothesize that MR can provide a diagnostic accuracy comparable to CT.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Signed informed consent form
• Age > 18 years old
• Nontraumatic acute abdomen
• Weight < 120kg
• Can keep apnoea for 15s
• Surgeon in charge considers patient fit for participation in study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Contraindications of MRI
• Suspicion of acute vascular disease
• Severe cardial or pulmonal insufficiency
• Pregnancy
• Untreated psychiatric illness