Computertomographie der Kolondivertikulitis

Abstract

33 patients with clinically suspected diverticulitis of the colon were studied prospectively by CT. The predictive value of symptoms, such as thickening of the colonic wall (86.6%), inflammatory changes of the pericolic fatty tissue (87.5%), the presence of diverticula (73.3%) and abscess formation (100%), were examined separately and their significance was evaluated. Our study was performed mainly on clinically less severe cases of diverticulitis. True positive results by CT were reached in 20/21 cases (sensitivity = 95.2%), true negative findings in 9/12 (specificity = 75.0%). The results of CT examinations were compared with those of contrast enemas (n = 24) and/or endoscopy (n = 6). The number of cases was too low to achieve statistic significance; the relatively high percentage of questionably positive results shows the difficulties inherent in these methods. Our study shows that CT is a good means to demonstrate even less severe forms of colonic diverticulitis with sufficient reliability.