Diagnostic accuracy of CT scan in abdominal blunt trauma

Obiective: To evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of CT scan findings in Patients ith blunt abdominal trauma admitted to the university hospital.Methods: All the atients ith blunt abdominal trauma admitted at a tertiary teaching trauma center in Iran between 2005 and 2007 were enrolled in this study.In the absence of any clinical anifestations,he patients underwent a diagnostic CT scan.Laparatomy was performed in those with positive CT results.Others were observed for 48 hours and discharged in case no problem as reported;otherwise they underwent laparatomy.Information on patients'demographic ata,mechanism of trauma,indication for CT scan,CT scan findings,results of laparotomy ere gathered.The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the CT-scan images in regard ith the organ injured were calculated.The sensitivity,specificity and accuracy of the T scan were calculated in each case.Results: CT Scan had the highest sensitivity for etecting the injuries to liver (100%) and spleen (86.6%).The specificity of the method or detecting retroperitoneal hematoma (100%) and injuries to kidney (93.5%) was higher han other organs.The accuracy of CT images to detect the injuries to spleen,liver,idney and retroperitoneal hematoma was reported to be 96.1%,94.4%,91.6% and 91.6% espectively.Conclusion: The findings of the present study reveal that CT scan could econsidered as a good choice,especially for patients with blunt abdominal trauma in eaching hospitals where the radiologic academic staff is not present in the hospital in the night shifts.