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Ultrasound, computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging - which is preferred for acute appendicitis in
Hanfei Zhang1, Meiyan Liao2, Jie Chen1
1Department of Radiology, ZhongNan Hospital of Wuhan University, 169 Donghu Rd, Wuchang, 430071, Wuhan, China.
Insights
Ultrasound (US), CT, and MRI demonstrate high accuracy in diagnosing childhood appendicitis. While MRI showed a slightly higher diagnostic performance, no significant differences were found between the imaging techniques.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Radiology
- Diagnostic Imaging
- Gastrointestinal Imaging
Background:
- Accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis in children is crucial.
- Current consensus on the comparative accuracy of ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for pediatric appendicitis is lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a meta-analysis comparing the diagnostic accuracies of US, CT, and MRI for clinically suspected acute appendicitis in children.
Main Methods:
- Systematic literature search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library.
- Data extraction and quality assessment of included studies.
- Calculation and comparison of sensitivity, specificity, and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC).
Main Results:
- Twenty-seven articles comprising 29 studies were included (19 US, 6 CT, 4 MRI).
- MRI demonstrated a slightly higher AUROC (0.995) compared to US (0.987) and CT (0.982).
- No statistically significant difference in diagnostic accuracy was observed between the three modalities (P > 0.05).
Conclusions:
- Ultrasound, CT, and MRI exhibit high diagnostic accuracies for pediatric acute appendicitis.
- No significant differences in accuracy were found among US, CT, and MRI in diagnosing childhood appendicitis.
Background:
There is no established consensus about the relative accuracies of US, CT and MRI in childhood appendicitis.
Objective:
To compare, through meta-analysis, the accuracies of US, CT and MRI for clinically suspected acute appendicitis in children.
Materials And Methods:
PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were searched. After study selection, data extraction and quality assessment, the sensitivity, specificity and the area under the curve of summary receiver operating characteristic were calculated and compared.
Results:
Twenty-seven articles including 29 studies met the inclusion criteria, including 19 studies (9,170 patients) of US, 6 studies (928 patients) of CT and 4 studies (990 patients) of MRI. The analysis showed that the area under the receiver operator characteristics curve of MRI (0.995) was a little higher than that of US (0.987) and CT (0.982; P > 0.05).
Conclusion:
US, CT and MRI have high diagnostic accuracies of clinically suspected acute appendicitis in children overall with no significant difference.
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