Ac. Lata et al., COMPARISON OF REAL-TIME ULTRASONOGRAPHY AND CORONAL COMPUTED-TOMOGRAPHY IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ORBITAL FRACTURES, Canadian Association of Radiologists journal, 44(5), 1993, pp. 371-376
Real-time ultrasonography (US) was used to evaluate the bony orbit in
19 patients who had sustained orbital trauma. The ability of US to dem
onstrate clinically significant orbital fractures was compared with th
at of thin-section coronal computed tomography (CT); the latter method
was treated as definitive. US had a sensitivity of 92%, a specificity
of 100% and a positive predictive value of 100%. Quantification of th
e size of fragments by the two methods yielded similar results. Real-t
ime US adequately displayed the anatomic features of the orbit and det
ected clinically significant fractures. This technique may have a role
in post-traumatic imaging of the orbit when coronal CT is not possibl
e.