2010, Number 2
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Anales de Radiología México 2010; 9 (2)
Current utility of plain radiography in the diagnosis of skull fractures
Onofre CJ, Mancilla SAA
Language: Spanish
References: 12
Page: 73-75
PDF size: 169.26 Kb.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: In spite of the existence of Computed Tomography, the Simple X-ray of the Skull is still used in the evaluation of patients with craneoencephalic trauma.
Objective: To evaluate current diagnostic utility of the simple x-ray in the diagnosis of skull fractures.
Material and methods: A diagnostic test was carried out, radiological diagnoses being retrospectively analyzed of patients with craneoencephalic trauma with TC and RSC, using like reference TC test.
Results: 100 patients were analyzed; RSC only detected seven fractures of 22 detected by CAT; a sensibility of 31.8% (CI 95%: 18.7-42.0) being obtained, specificity of 94.9% (CI 95%: 91.2-97.7), VPP of 63.6% (CI 95%: 37.3-84.0) and VPN of 83.1% (CI 95%: 79.9-85.7).
Conclusions: RSC has a low sensibility for the detection of skull fractures. If one doesn’t have access to CAT, the serious biggest utility to discard fracture. CAT is broadly superior.
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