Journal of ultrasound in medicine : official journal of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine
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The purpose of this study was to assess the use of ultrasonography in patients with acute abdominal trauma. Five hundred prospective patients, who came to the Emergency Department with acute trauma, were evaluated with ultrasonography and included in this study. The ultrasonographic examination focused on detection of free fluid but included evaluation of parenchymal organs for injury. ⋯ The emergent ultrasonogram may be used to detect free fluid in the abdomen of the acutely traumatized patient. However, sonography is limited in detecting free fluid in the pelvis using the present technique and does not allow visualization of organ injury. Limitations of this examination should be recognized for appropriate triage of the acutely traumatized patient.
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De Quervain disease is a job-related tenosynovitis that affects the synovial sheath of the tendons of the abductor pollicis longus and extensor pollicis brevis muscles; it is associated with pain and functional impairment and progresses to cause local fibrosis with blockage or triggering of the thumb. High-resolution ultrasonography of the wrist was performed in eight patients with de Quervain disease; the examination was performed in axial and coronal scans with a 13 MHz linear transducer. The evaluation of normal wrists helped to define the normal sonographic anatomy of the first extensor compartment; obvious changes of the tendon sheath were noted in all cases of de Quervain disease (thickening and edema of the synovial sheath and fluid within the sheath). We conclude that ultrasonography is able to confirm the clinical diagnosis of de Quervain disease and may have a role in the follow-up of this disorder.