ACR Appropriateness Criteria® on Acute Pelvic Pain in the Reproductive Age Group

Premenopausal women who present with acute pelvic pain frequently pose a diagnostic dilemma, exhibiting nonspecific signs and symptoms, the most common being nausea, vomiting, and leukocytosis. Diagnostic considerations encompass multiple organ systems, including obstetric, gynecologic, urologic, gastrointestinal, and vascular etiologies. The selection of imaging modality is determined by the clinically suspected differential diagnosis. Thus, a careful evaluation of such a patient should be performed and diagnostic considerations narrowed before a modality is chosen. Transvaginal and transabdominal pelvic sonography is the modality of choice when an obstetric or gynecologic abnormality is suspected, and computed tomography is more useful when gastrointestinal or genitourinary pathology is more likely. Magnetic resonance imaging, when available in the acute setting, is favored over computed tomography for assessing pregnant patients for nongynecologic etiologies because of the lack of ionizing radiation.