Diagnostic performance of abdominal point of care ultrasound performed by an emergency physician in acute right iliac fossa pain

Abstract

BackgroundRight iliac fossa abdominal pain is a common reason for emergency ward admissions, its etiology is difficult to diagnose. It can be facilitated by an imaging examination, such as a Computerized Tomography scan which exposes the patient to ionizing radiation and implies delays. A bedside ultrasound performed by emergency physicians could avoid these issues. The aim of our study was to assess the performance of ultrasound carried out at the patient’s bedside by an emergency physician compared with a clinical-laboratory examination for the diagnosis of a surgical pathology in right iliac fossa pain.MethodsThis is a single-center prospective cohort study conducted in an Emergency Department receiving 19,000 patients per year. All patients presenting pain in the right iliac fossa were included by four (out of ten) emergency physicians certified in an ultrasound examination. A full grid pattern scan ultrasound of the abdominal cavity with analysis of the right iliac fossa was performed. The primary outcome was to compare the diagnosis performance of bedside ultrasound and clinical-laboratory examination to detect a surgical pathology. Two emergency physicians who did not participate in the study made the final diagnosis (i.e., surgical or non-surgical pathology) by reviewing the entire medical chart of each patient.ResultsFrom January 2011 to July 2013, 158 patients with a median age of 17 [13–32] years were analyzed. The diagnosed cases were: appendicitis (53), non-specific abdominal pain (48), lymphadenitis (22), ileitis (11), complicated ovarian cysts (7), neoplasias (5), inflammatory or infectious colitis (5), inguinal herniations (3), bowel obstructions (2), and salpingitis (2). The accuracy of ultrasound diagnoses was 0.89 (95% CI 0.84–0.94) versus 0.70 (95% CI 0.57–0.82) for diagnoses based on clinical-laboratory examination only (p < 0.001).ConclusionBedsides, ultrasound allows an accurate diagnosis of a surgical pathology in 89% of cases, which is more efficient than the clinical-laboratory examination.

Diagnostic Accuracy of Point-of-Care Ultrasound Integrated into Clinical Examination for Acute Diverticulitis: A Prospective Multicenter Study

“…Nowadays, the abdominal pain workup in the ED is based on a combination of clinical assessment and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS), aiming to increase diagnostic accuracy and to reduce the time to diagnosis, ED length of stay and the number of computed tomography (CT) scan requests [3,4]. In specific conditions, such as suspected abdominal aortic aneurysm, biliary and renal pathologies, pregnancy-related disorders and appendicitis, there are consolidated protocols that imply the systematic use of POCUS as an initial screening tool [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Previous literature has investigated the role of standard ultrasound in diverticulitis [12][13][14][15].…”

Imaging of Appendicitis: A Systematic Review

“…Bourcier, et al ( 2018) 11 conducted a study with abdominal pain patients. They showed the diagnosed cases were: appendicitis (53), non-specific abdominal pain (48), lymphadenitis (22), ileitis (11), complicated ovarian cysts (7), neoplasias (5), inflammatory or infectious colitis (5), inguinal herniations (3), bowel obstructions (2), and salpingitis (2).…”

Point-of-care ultrasound in primary care: a systematic review of generalist performed point-of-care ultrasound in unselected populations

“…Two studies were identified using several of the above-mentioned techniques to help diagnose patients presenting with abdominal pain and found an overall improvement in diagnostic accuracy compared to work-up as usual [150, 151].…”