Incidentally Discovered Abdominal Calcifications – a Libyan Profile

Purpose: Abdominal calcifications are often detected on routine plain abdominal radiographs and are often not the cause of patients’ symptoms. These are more commonly seen in Libya and are often ignored by the clinicians. The aim of this article is to assess the exact incidence of abdominal calcifications in Libyan patients and the optimal management. Material & Methods: Records of 498 patients randomly selected from four hospitals in Libya were retrospectively evaluated. Plain abdominal radiographs were evaluated for any evidence of calcification by two independent blinded radiologists. The concurrent findings were considered to be positive for calcification and the cases with discordance between two radiologists were ignored. Results: There were 19 patients withabdominal calcifications out of which 10 (52.6%) were males, and 9 (47.4%) females. The abdominal calcification was not seen in children and young age groups (< 30 years). Conclusion: Abdominal calcifications have a high incidence in Libya, probably due to endemicity of hydatid disease. The finding is very often ignored by the referring physicians and should always be evaluated for hydatid disease.