Introduction : Non traumatic Acute abdominal pain is caused due to a number of causes like acute appendicitis, diverticulitis, cholecystitis, renal calculus etc. The diagnosis of nontraumatic acute abdomen is a team work of radiologist and clinician. Nontraumatic acute abdominal conditions require precise radiological diagnosis to achieve excellent results to reduce morbidity and mortality.In the earlier part of the twentieth century, plain x-ray of abdomen was the only such investigation which was introduced as a diagnostic tool in clinical practice,s there is tremendous advancement in scientific fields, more and more diagnostic facilities like ultrasonography, endoscopy, MRI, CT scan, radionuclide scan and other sophisticated investigations have developed which can give more information than the plain x-ray. As air is a bad conductor of sound waves, the pathology can be missed in such conditions, which can still be picked up by a plain x-ray abdomen where ultrasound has failed to detect the lesion. So with this view a study was planned to analyze the findings of plain x-ray and ultrasound in non traumatic acute abdomen, to evaluate the acute abdominal conditions by using plain x-ray and ultrasound.

Aims and Objectives:

1) To study the various plain radiographic findings associated with nontraumatic acute abdomen.

2) To study the various ultrasonographic findings associated with nontraumatic acute abdomen.

3) To analyze the efficacy of plain x-ray and ultrasonography in the diagnosis of nontraumatic acute abdomen and to compare their individual merits and their superiority in the diagnosis. Both plain x-ray and ultrasonographic findings were correlated with final diagnosis which was done either by other mode of investigation, clinical correlations or laparotomy.

4) To reduce the investigation time and to facilitate early management of the patient to reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with nontraumatic acute abdominal conditions.

Materials and Methods: The study conducted was a non-randomized, prospective study. for a period of 12 months patients clinically having acute onset of pain abdomen attending the department of Radio-diagnosis Andhra medical College, Visakhapatnam Sample size of 50 cases who presented to us with nontraumatic acute abdomen were admitted to the hospital in the above-mentioned period and were subjected to plain x-ray of abdomen and ultrasonography of abdomen. Patients were admitted in various wards like general wards, special wards.

Result: Based on clinical history and clinical examination provisional clinical diagnosis was made. According to clinical diagnosis there were cases (32%) of renal and ureteric pathology, 13 cases (26%) of Intestinal obstruction, 7 cases (14%) hepatobiliary pathology, 5 cases[10%] of intestinal perforation, 4 cases[8%]of acute appendicitis,2 cases[4%]of acute gastritis,3 cases(6%)of other causes [1 case of acute pancreatitis, splenic pathology and appendicular mass.