Abstract #2962

Prospective Comparison of a Contrast-Enhanced MRI Protocol with Contrast-Enhanced CT for the Primary Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis

Michael Dean Repplinger¹, Perry J Pickhardt², Jessica B Robbins², Tim J Ziemlewicz², Doug R Kitchin², John Brian Harringa¹, Scott Hetzel³, and Scott Brian Reeder²

¹Emergency Medicine, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ²Radiology, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States, ³Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States

The aim of our study was to determine the test characteristics of an MRI protocol consisting of unenhanced, contrast-enhanced, and DWI to diagnose appendicitis. This was a prospective study including patients ≥12 years old being evaluated for appendicitis. We enrolled 226 patients; all images were interpreted by three fellowship-trained abdominal radiologists. Sensitivity and specificity (95% CI) were 95.2% (86.5-99%) and 89.4% (83.2-94%) for unenhanced MRI with DWI, 96.8% (89-99.6%) and 89.9% (83.7-94.4%) for CE-MRI, and 98.4% (91.6-100%) and 93.7% (88.3-97.1%) for CE-CT. We conclude that this MRI protocol is as accurate as CE-CT to diagnose appendicitis.

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