Diagnostic accuracy of contrast enhanced computed tomography in detection of colorectal cancer in clinically suspected patients

Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of contrast enhanced computed tomography (CECT) abdomen to detect the colorectal cancer in clinically suspected patients by taking histopathology as gold standard. Methodology: This was a descriptive Cross sectional study, which was carried out at radiology department of Civil Hospital, Karachi, from  January 2015 to  November 2015 and comprised patients referred for CECT of abdomen with clinical suspicious of colorectal carcinoma. The diagnosis of the colorectal cancer was made on the basis of radiological appearance on CT and then compared with histopathological findings. The primary performance of CECT abdomen in terms of sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of colorectal carcinoma was calculated.   Results: Out of the 244 subjects, 154 (63.1%) were males and 90 (36.9%) were females. Mean age of the patients was 46.84±10.88 years. Colorectal carcinoma was labeled in 224 patients on CECT abdomen, out of these among 206 patients; carcinoma was proven on histological findings. Contrasted enhanced computed tomography showed diagnostic accuracy of 89.8% followed by sensitivity 92.0% and specificity 65.0%. Conclusion: Contrast enhanced CT is a non-invasive imaging technique in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer with sensitivity 92.0% and specificity 65.0%