Abdominal Imaging
Patient-centered care.
Abdominal imaging addresses the health of the colon, intestines, kidneys, liver, pancreas, pelvis and stomach. We evaluate a number of different disorders in these major organs, from kidney stones to pancreatitis, and we provide both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. In addition to CT and MRI exams, we perform specialized abdominal imaging procedures, such as biopsies and virtual colonoscopy, that can help determine the need for surgical intervention.
You get the clearest possible results, from imaging experts using state-of-the-art equipment.
Why get screened?
Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms (AAA) have increased three-fold in the last 30 years. Screening, early detection and monitoring can prevent a rupture.
- Approximately one in every 250 people more than the age of 50 will die of a ruptured AAA.
- AAA affects as many as eight percent of people more than the age of 65.
- Males are four times more likely to have AAA than females.
- AAA is the 17th leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for more than 15,000 deaths each year.
- Those at highest risk are males more than the age of 60 who have ever smoked and/or who have a history of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).
- 50 percent of patients with AAA who do not undergo treatment die of a rupture.
Abdominal Imaging Procedures
This is an accurate and noninvasive abdominal imaging modality used to assess and evaluate certain gastrointestinal problems, such as inflammatory bowel disease (including Crohn’s Disease), infectious enteritis, lymphoma or tuberculosis. It also can be used in patients with occult gastrointestinal bleeding to determine if a small bowel polyp is causing the bleeding. Before a CTE scan, you will drink approximately one liter of a water-like solution over the course of an hour and receive an intravenous injection of contrast medium to help the radiologist better evaluate your small and large bowel.
A colonoscopy is a medical procedure that allows a doctor to look inside the entire large intestine for things such as inflamed tissue, abnormal growths and ulcers. It is most often used to look for early signs of cancer in the colon and rectum or to look for causes for unexplained changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, rectal bleeding or weight loss.
Instead of a traditional colonoscopy, requiring sedation and insertion of a guided video camera into the rectum, the virtual colonoscopy at our facility is non-invasive and comfortable for the patient. A high-resolution CT scanner painlessly examines the colon and produces multi-dimensional views that can reveal the presence of even the smallest abnormalities. No pain medication, sedative or recovery is necessary.
When a patient has chronic abdominal pain, bowel changes, reflux, unexplained vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, blood in the stool or cancer or tumors, a physician may request examination of the upper or lower gastrointestinal tract. The upper GI tract is the esophagus, stomach and first part of the small intestine. The lower GI tract is the large intestine (colon). Barium is an orally-ingested contrast used with fluoroscopy to image these organs in motion. This helps the physician gain an accurate understanding of the function and anatomy of those organs in the patient’s body.
These types of procedures treat blockages or narrowing of the bile ducts, sometimes caused by gallstones and leading to jaundice and severe inflammation or infection of the gallbladder. An interventional radiologist can perform a minimally invasive procedure (with imaging guidance and a contrast agent) that is appropriate for the pathology. The range includes draining of the bile, removal of gallstones, stent placement and decompression (of an inflamed gall bladder).
This specialty focuses on urinary tract and kidney disorders. Renal hypertension puts stress and increased pressure on the kidney and is a major cause of end-stage renal disease. Interventional radiologists can perform angioplasty and, if needed, stenting, to improve blood flow to the kidney. Balloon angioplasty and stenting has generally replaced surgery as the first-line treatment for renal arterial occlusions.
– excerpted from the Society of Interventional Radiology
VRI Social Channels