Sonography of acute appendicitis.

Graded compression sonography is an established imaging modality in the clinical setting of acute right lower quadrant pain or to diagnose acute appendicitis because of its easy assessability, noninvasiveness, real-time imaging. However, the ability to accurately diagnose appendicitis can be affected by several factors including operator dependence, deeper-located appendix, and obesity or muscularity of the patient. However, adjuvant techniques utilizing advanced equipment and accumulated operator's experience to conventional graded compression sonography will yield more frequent detection of the vermiform appendix and more accurate results of acute appendicitis on sonography. This article introduces adjuvant techniques and various know-how of real field in the detection of the vermiform appendix and diagnosis of acute appendicitis.