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Aim of this report is to present a case of acute occlusion of the abdominal aorta recognized by spiral-CT. After a brief description of the etiology and pathology of abdominal aorta acute occlusion, stress is laid on diagnostic role of spiral-CT, based on personal and literature data. The advantage of spiral respect to non-spiral CT is the quicker examination time which is very important, mostly in emergencies. On the contrary, the diagnosis of acute abdominal aorta occlusion is not modified by volumetric CT respect to non-spiral and it is based on the absence of aorta contrast enhancement above the occlusion level.

The radiological features of one patient, entirely asymptomatic, with a paracardiac mass in the right lower lobe, are presented. Computed tomography (TC) evaluation of the chest has shown with remarkable accuracy a massive hiatal hernia, containing the whole stomach and fatty omental tissue. This case confirms TC validity as an accurate and non invasive method in differential diagnosis of chest radiological opacities and its utility to identify seat and composition of diaphragmatic hernias.