Acute pelvi-abdominal pain in pregnancy refers to pain that occurs during the pregnancy period. It is a major diagnostic challenge to primary care physicians. A diagnosis based solely on the history, physical examination and simple laboratory data is frequently inaccurate. Much of the morbidity and mortality associated with its different causes can be attributed to delay in establishing the correct diagnosis.Diagnostic imaging allows rapid and often precise diagnosis, leading to an optimal management, especially allowing efficient triaging of pregnant patients between medical or symptomatic treatment, gynecologic consultation or referral to surgery.The most common urgent causes of acute pelvi-abdominal pain are gynaecologic pregnancy related (abortion, ectopic pregnancy, preterm labor, placental abruption, uterine rupture), or gynaecologic non pregnancy related (adnexal mass, adnexal torsion, uterine leiomyoma, endometriosis, pelvic inflammatory disease), or gastrointestinal (appendicitis, inflammatory bowel disease, intestinal obstruction, gastroesophageal reflux, peptic ulcer disease), or hepatobiliary (HELLP syndrome(hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count), acute fatty liver of pregnancy, cholelithiasis, acute cholecystitis, acute pancreatitis, hepatitis), or genitourinary (hydronephrosis of pregnancy, urolithiasis, pyelonephritis, cystitis) or vascular (ovarian vein thrombosis, mesenteric vein thrombosis, ovarian vein syndrome, aneurysm rupture, vasculitis).
The aim of this study was to assess the role and usefulness of ultrasound modality in the evaluation causes of acute pelvi-abdominal pain in pregnancy.