Health Dictionary
Reliable, easy-to-read patient information on common medical conditions — written in plain language, free of jargon, and grounded in current evidence. Browse the most frequent diagnoses, understand what they mean for everyday life, and learn which steps and questions help you have a focused conversation with your doctor.
Abdominal aortic aneurysm abdominal x ray
Introduction
Overview
Overview
Plain abdominal radiographs are obtained in patients complaining of abdominal pain and used for the initial diagnosis of an AAA. Because of the high proportion of patients with aortic wall calcification, however, it is often difficult to further evaluate an AAA using a plain radiograph. Plain radiographs are useful, however, when an aneurysmal aorta appears normal on an angiogram due to a thrombus within the sac.
Abdominal X Ray
Abdominal X Ray
Aortic wall calcification has been shown in the radiograph below:
Faint outline of the calcified wall of an AAA
Copyleft image obtained courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:RupturedAAAXray.png; James Heilman, MD.
Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Hardik Patel, M.D.