[Acute and chronic progressive abdominal pain: what is the role of radiogical imaging?].

There are many causes for acute or chronic progressive abdominal pain. Although only about one percent of these patients suffer from acute mesenteric ischemia (MI), an efficient diagnostic work-up is mandatory to reduce the high mortality. An overview about the possibilities of conventional and modern imaging modalities is given. Plain films and ultrasonography are still important in the basic work-up, however, its sensitivity is limited. Angiography has a high sensitivity and specitivity. However, angiography is not always available. Modern spiral-CT is widely available and its sensitivity is already similar to angiography. An other advantage of CT is the possibility to detect the most other frequent causes of abdominal pain. Therefore CT should be performed as fast as possible.