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Researchers evaluated diagnostic accuracy and radiation exposure for two methods of limited abdominal computed tomography (CT) in a prospective, double-blind observational study in a convenience sample of 93 emergency department patients who required CT for acute abdominal pain. The cephalad and caudad limits of pain and tenderness were marked on patients' abdomens before CT. One limited CT method involved imaging only between the two markers, and the other involved imaging between the cephalad marker and the standard caudad limit. Patients with trauma or recent abdominal surgery and those who could not cooperate or describe the area of pain and tenderness were excluded from the study.
Fifty-one patients (55%) had evidence of acute pathology…