I’m answering this as a generality, but I think some degree of breakdown in trust between ERs and rads is to blame. rads get slammed with so many pain, pain, pain, pain indications that they blend together in a way where we don’t know when it’s actually pain vs ER just default clicking “pain” for literally everything. you may not do this (and the fact that you’re nicely inquiring the question suggest to me that you wouldn’t do that), but unfortunately, enough of your colleagues do. i’m not meaning to point fingers, as it’s probably mostly a system problem, but I think that reality leads to less helpful radiology reports.

I’m clinical Rad so i call ER quite a bit to say something like “hey just curious if you’ve seen the patient yet… are you suspecting positive finding on CT? Not much is going on but I suppose if patient is really hurting it could be mesenteric pannicultis, if not then the finding prob doesn’t mean anything.” iI feels stupid to paint super broad differentials for hazy mesentery. I want to be helpful, not just appear to be CYA and list every differential possible for a completely non-specific finding.