Interpretation of cat abdominal radiographs, catshealthy! For cats, the abdominal cavity is a huge area, which contains the body's large For some systems and organs, the examination of the abdominal cavity is not just as simple as palpation and auscultation. Radiographic examination is conducive to better judgment of the disease and to check the development of the disease in an intuitive way.

I. Changes in volume

Volume The changes are mainly manifested as an increase or decrease in the volume of internal organs than normal. The cause of the increase in organ volume may be swelling, hyperplasia, hypertrophy of tissues and organs, tumors, cysts, hematomas, abscesses, emphysema or fluid accumulation in the organs. This makes the diseased organ larger than normal, sometimes several times larger, and changes the position or shape of the tissue or organ adjacent to the diseased organ. The reduction in size may be due to congenital underdevelopment of the organ or the atrophy of the organ due to disease.

3. Changes in morphological outline

Changes in morphological contours manifest as deformations of internal organs. Any deformation of luminal organs such as stomach, intestines, bladder, and uterus, as well as parenchymal organs such as liver, spleen, and kidney, beyond the physiological range is a sign of disease. The types of deformation are changes in geometry, changes in surface shape, and changes in mucosal morphology of hollow organs. For example, the posterior border of the liver becomes blunt and rounded after hepatomegaly; the surface of the liver is irregular in liver cirrhosis and liver tumor; the direct sign of gastric ulcer is the niche shadow on barium feeding; Mucosal filling defect.

IV. Changes in Density

Changes in Abdominal Density It manifests as increased density or decreased density, and it can be manifested as generalized or limited density changes. Generalized increased density is commonly seen in ascites, peritonitis, and peritoneal tumors. X-ray films show soft tissue shadows with generalized increased density, and the contours of intra-abdominal organs are unclear. Abdominal localized increased density is often seen in abdominal organ tumors or enlargement, and it is shown as localized high-density soft tissue shadows on X-ray films. If there are calcifications in the abdominal cavity (calcification of abdominal lymph nodes), organ stones (gallstones, kidney stones, or bladder stones), it will appear as a high-density foreign body shadow. Low-density shadows in the abdomen can be seen in stomach, intestinal gas, pneumoperitoneum caused by various reasons. It should be noted that under normal circumstances, more or less gas remains in the digestive tract, which also appears as low-density shadows, which should be distinguished from pathological shadows in actual work.

V. Precautions

1. Abdominal X-ray During the examination, multiple body positions should be placed and photographed together with the application of different imaging techniques, otherwise there may be a phenomenon of missed diagnosis. For example, if there is a foreign body in the stomach, if the foreign body has a strong transmittance, the image of the foreign body may be covered by the food and gas in the stomach when shooting in a single position.

2. Pay attention to the differential diagnosis of different diseases, such as the identification of abdominal mass and ascites, abdominal mass is a space-occupying X-ray image, and ascites is high-density The homogenized image of the intestine, the intestinal tract and other abdominal organs float in it.

3. Pay attention to the normal position of the abdominal nipple, it is easy to be misdiagnosed as ureteral calculi.

4. Disorders of tissue and organ function are difficult to show on plain X-rays. Contrast techniques and ultrasound imaging are often necessary in order to reveal some details of the abdominal organs.