Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-Radiologist-Performed Ultrasound for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Study Design
2.2. Data Sources and Search Strategy
2.3. Inclusion Criteria and Selection of Studies
2.4. Literature Search Outcomes
2.5. Evaluation of Methodological Quality
2.6. Synthesis and Analysis of Data
2.7. Methodological Quality Evaluation in the Included Studies
3. Results
4. Discussion
Limitations
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
CT | Computed Tomography |
US | Ultrasound |
PRISMA | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses |
PubMed | US National Library of Medicine’s database of biomedical literature |
Ovid MEDLINE | Online database of biomedical articles |
EMBASE | Online database of biomedical articles |
Cochrane Library | Collection of databases of systematic reviews and other evidence |
QUADAS-2 | Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies—Second Edition |
PPV | Positive Predictive Value |
NPV | Negative Predictive Value |
SROC | Summary Receiver Operating Characteristic curve |
CI | Confidence Interval |
POCUS | Point-of-care ultrasound |
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Year | Author | Country | Sample Size | Age (Years) | Study Design | Operator | TP | FP | FN | TN | Sensitivity (%) | Specificity (%) | PPV(%) | NPV(%) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Doniger [10] | United States | 40 | 2–18 (range) | Prospective | EM physician | 15 | 3 | 1 | 21 | 93.8 | 87.5 | 83.3 | 95.5 |
2018 | Soundappan [11] | Australia | 62 | 9.5 ± 2.8 (mean ± SD) | Prospective | Surgeon | 23 | 1 | 5 | 33 | 82.1 | 97.0 | 95.8 | 86.9 |
2015 | Kim (1) [12] | South Korea | 115 | Not reported | Prospective | EM physician or resident | 33 | 8 | 3 | 71 | 91.7 | 89.9 | 80.5 | 95.6 |
2015 | Kim (2) [13] | South Korea | 166 | 10.6 (mean) | retrospective | EM physician | 40 | 0 | 0 | 126 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
2014 | Sivitz [8] | United States | 264 | 10.2 (median); range 2–20.9 | Prospective | EM physician | 72 | 13 | 13 | 166 | 84.7 | 92.7 | 84.7 | 92.7 |
2014 | Elikashvili [14] | United States | 150 | 12.0 ± 5.2 (mean ± SD) | Prospective | EM physician | 30 | 5 | 20 | 95 | 60.0 | 95.0 | 85.7 | 82.6 |
2013 | Lin [15] | Taiwan | 155 | 6 ± 5.8 (mean ± SD) | retrospective | EM physician | 108 | 10 | 4 | 33 | 96.4 | 76.7 | 91.5 | 89.2 |
2011 | Burford [16] | United States | 54 | 8.8 (mean); range 3–16 | Prospective | Surgeon | 23 | 1 | 6 | 24 | 79.3 | 96.0 | 95.8 | 80.0 |
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Oh, S.K. Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-Radiologist-Performed Ultrasound for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicina 2025, 61, 1308. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61071308
Oh SK. Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-Radiologist-Performed Ultrasound for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicina. 2025; 61(7):1308. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61071308
Chicago/Turabian StyleOh, Se Kwang. 2025. "Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-Radiologist-Performed Ultrasound for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" Medicina 61, no. 7: 1308. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61071308
APA StyleOh, S. K. (2025). Diagnostic Accuracy of Non-Radiologist-Performed Ultrasound for Diagnosing Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Medicina, 61(7), 1308. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina61071308