Bowel pathologies encompass a large diversity of diseases with commonly confusing and overlapping clinical presentations. Sonography has a leading role in diagnosing these disorders, especially in small children. However, in some cases, baseline sonography does not deliver a satisfactory result on the suspected pathology. To increase the sensitivity and specificity of the standard bowel ultrasound technique, complimentary ultrasound enema may be performed, which is also referred to as “hydrocolon” in the literature. This paper summarizes the technique of sonographic enema, as well as some bowel pathologies from our case series where sonographic enema proved to be helpful in the diagnostic work-up.

In this study, we assessed the sensitivity and specificity of different quantitative findings of color Doppler and grayscale ultrasonography in predicting morbidly adherent placenta. A total of 120 patients were ultimately included for analysis, of whom 15 had morbidly adherent placenta. The two groups were significantly different regarding the number of vessels. Based on color Doppler ultrasonography, in predicting the morbidly adherent placenta, more than two intraplecental echolucent zones with color flow had 93% and 98% sensitivity and specificity, respectively. According to grayscale ultrasonography, more than thirteen intraplacental echolucent zones had the sensitivity and specificity of 86% and 80% in predicting morbidly adherent placenta, respectively. Echolucent zone >11 mm at non-fetal surface had a sensitivity of 93% and a specificity of 66% in detecting morbidly adherent placenta.