[Computed tomography of colonic diverticulitis].

33 patients with clinically suspected diverticulitis of the colon were studied prospectively by CT. The predictive value of symptoms, such as thickening of the colonic wall (86.6%), inflammatory changes of the pericolic fatty tissue (87.5%), the presence of diverticula (73.3%) and abscess formation (100%), were examined separately and their significance was evaluated. Our study was performed mainly on clinically less severe cases of diverticulitis. True positive results by CT were reached in 20/21 cases (sensitivity = 95.2%), true negative findings in 9/12 (specificity = 75.0%). The results of CT examinations were compared with those of contrast enemas (n = 24) and/or endoscopy (n = 6). The number of cases was too low to achieve statistic significance; the relatively high percentage of questionably positive results shows the difficulties inherent in these methods. Our study shows that CT is a good means to demonstrate even less severe forms of colonic diverticulitis with sufficient reliability.