MediAI

  Acute Cholecystitis on CT: Imaging Biomarkers, AI-Assisted Diagnosis, and Clinical Decision-Making for Emergency Radiology Keywords: Acute Cholecystitis, Gallbladder CT, Emergency Radiology, Medical Imaging AI, Radiology AI, Abdominal CT, Gallstones, CT Interpretation, AI Healthcare, Clinical Decision Support When Right Upper Quadrant Pain Becomes a Surgical Emergency A 56-year-old man presented to the emergency department with sudden-onset severe abdominal pain localized to the right upper quadrant. He reported nausea and progressive discomfort that had worsened over several hours. Physical examination demonstrated marked tenderness over the gallbladder fossa with a positive Murphy sign, while laboratory evaluation revealed inflammatory changes suggestive of an acute infectious process. Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT) demonstrated several characteristic imaging findings: Marked gallbladder distension Diffuse gallbladder wall thickening Mucosal hyperenhancement ...

A 78-year-old woman arrives at the emergency department with progressively worsening right upper quadrant abdominal pain. Initial laboratory findings are nonspecific. Vital signs are mildly abnormal. The patient appears uncomfortable but not critically ill. A routine abdominal radiograph is obtained. At first glance, the image may appear deceptively subtle. Yet hidden within the gallbladder fossa is one of the most dangerous radiologic findings in emergency diagnosis: gas within the gallbladder wall . This is not ordinary acute cholecystitis. This is acute gangrenous/emphysematous cholecystitis , a rapidly progressive and potentially fatal subtype of gallbladder infection associated with ischemia, necrosis, perforation, septic shock, and mortality rates approaching 20–25%. For radiologists, emergency physicians, surgeons, and medical imaging professionals, rapid recognition is critical. Delayed diagnosis can lead to catastrophic outcomes within hours. In this article, we review the pat...