Imaging in the diagnosis of a patient with an intra-abdominal mass

There have been rapid and significant developments in the imaging techniques available to the radiologist during the last decade. The clinician investigating an abdominal mass is often baffled by what examinations to request and in what sequence. An attempt is made to simplify this complex problem by outlining the broad principles of the imaging approach. The development of and advances in ultrasonography and CT, both non-invasive techniques, have had a major impact on the pre-operative diagnosis of abdominal masses. Both examinations are rapidly performed and eliminate the wasted man-hours and preparation requested for barium and other contrast-medium examinations. Other techniques discussed are visceral angiography radioisotope scanning and percutaneous fine-needle biopsies. A teamwork approach is advocated because it eliminates unnecessary and costly studies and results in a diagnosis being made with a minimum of hazard, cost and inconvenience to the patient. The author also presents a table of the more common abdominal masses