Emergency ultrasound in the evaluation of acute-onset abdominal pain in children.
The diagnostic efficacy of abdominal ultrasound obtained within 72 hours of admission in children with undiagnosed, acute-onset abdominal pain was studied. In our 54 patients, sonogram supported the clinical diagnosis in 22 patients (40.7%), established a previously unsuspected diagnosis in nine (16.6%), and was normal in 23/54 (42.6%). Twenty-one of the patients with a normal study recovered uneventfully. Two patients had a false negative study (sensitivity of 91%) and in three, the study was falsely positive (specificity 90.3%). Thus, our data suggest that emergency abdominal ultrasound may be of significant diagnostic value in the evaluation of children with acute-onset abdominal pain.
See
C C
CC
Department of Pediatrics, New York Medical College, Valhalla 10595.
Glassman
M
M
Berezin
S
S
Inamdar
S
S
Newman
L J
LJ
D000006:Abdomen, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D004630:Emergencies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010808:Physical Examination; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014463:Ultrasonography