Ultrasonography of the acute abdomen: gastrointestinal conditions.

Although multislice, helical CT is increasingly replacing ultrasonography for the evaluation of patients with acute abdominal pain, ultrasound does have certain specific advantages over CT. This article discusses the advantages of ultrasound in imaging of the acute abdomen, exploring such areas as appendicitis, ileocecal Crohn's disease, infectious ileocolitis and infectious ileocecitis, mesenteric lymphadenitis, cecal carcinoma, sigmoid diverticulitis, right-sided colonic diverticulitis, and perforated peptic ulcer.