Comparison of Ultrasound and Radiography in the Diagnosis of Abdominopelvic Masses

Abstract

Ultrasound scanning of the soft tissues has been used increasingly at clinical level for some years now, especially for investigating abdominal organs and abdominopelvic space-occupying lesions, whose intrinsic structure they delineate. This paper deals with the practical applications of ultrasound and compares the information it supplies with that supplied by the simpler and least traumatic radiologic investigations in 60 cases of abdominopelvic swellings. In all the patients ultrasound demonstrated space-occupying lesions and in 52 cases specified whether the mass was cystic or solid, whether a cyst was uni- or multilocular and whether a solid mass was homogeneous or not. In this series only one multilocular ovarian cystocarcinoma was mistaken for a solid mass. Compared with routine X-ray investigations, the ultrasound findings proved to be superfluous in 33 cases and contributory in 27. The latter were mainly utero-ovarian masses, hepatomegalies, swellings of nonfunctioning kidneys or gallbladders and serous cysts.