ABSTRACT
Objective: to determine diagnostic accuracy of CT scan to diagnose intestinal obstruction on the basis of histopathological analysis as gold standard
Methods: total of one hundred and eleven [n=111] patients with age ranging 20-60 years having profound clinical features of intestinal obstruction were enrolled in the study. CT scan was performed with intravenous contrast medium. Following parameter were assessed on CT scanning: dilatation of bowel loops, presence of abrupt or gradual change of luminal caliber in bowel, and presence of any wall thickening of bowel or focal mass lesion at or around the level of obstruction. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy was assessed among the two procedures
Results: mean age of subjects was 39.6 +/- 11.4 years. The female to male ratio in this study was 1:1. Intestinal obstruction was detected in 70% cases using CT scan while 73% cases were identified positive using the histopathological analysis. Overall sensitivity was found to be 95.1%, specificity 96.7%, and accuracy of 69.4% in this study. Among patients with age 40 years exhibited sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 94.7%. Whereas, among male patients sensitivity was 100% and specificity was 93.3% and in female patients the sensitivity was 90.2% and specificity was 100%
Conclusion: CT is highly sensitive and specific in determining presence of bowel obstruction and it also clearly demonstrates the site and cause of obstruction