Evaluation of acute right upper quadrant pain: sonography and 99mTc-PIPIDA cholescintigraphy

A group of 75 patients with acute right upper quadrant pain was evaluated with both sonography and cholescintigraphy. Accuracy in screening for gallbladder disease was significantly greater with sonography (96%) than with cholescintigraphy (74%). For selecting patients with acute cholecystitis from this population that included acute and chronic cholecystitis as well as nonbiliary pathology, PIPIDA was less accurate (77%) than might be expected based on previous reports primarily due to false positive nonvisualization caused by chronic cholecystitis. Of patients with nonbiliary pathology, sonography was able to detect the cause of the right upper quadrant pain in 21%. Patients with acute right upper quadrant pain should first be screened with sonography. If cholescintigraphy is subsequently used for suspected acute cholecystitis, positive results should be interpreted with caution before surgery is planned.