Journal article - Review
Accuracy of ultrasound for intussusception in pediatric emergency presentations: a systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis
International journal of emergency medicine, v 19(1), 41
10 Feb 2026
PMID: 41667954
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Introduction: Intussusception is a common cause of acute abdominal emergencies in children. This systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound for intussusception in pediatric emergency presentations, providing pooled estimates for sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and diagnostic odds ratios to inform clinical practice.
Methods: Adhering to PRISMA-DTA guidelines, a comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science up to July 2025. Bayesian bivariate random-effects meta-analyses were performed to estimate pooled sensitivity, specificity, and other measures, with subgroup and meta-regression analyses to explore heterogeneity.
Results: A total of 44 studies comprising 4,142 pediatric patients were included in the quantitative synthesis. The pooled sensitivity of ultrasound for diagnosing intussusception was 96.3% (95% credible interval [CrI] 94.9–97.5%), and the pooled specificity was 95.7% (95% CrI 93.3–97.5%). The area under the hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was 0.81–0.82, indicating good discriminative ability. Positive predictive value (PPV) ranged from 54.1% at 5% prevalence to 99.8% at 95% prevalence, while negative predictive value (NPV) decreased from 99.8% to 57.7% across the same prevalence range. The overall certainty of evidence for sensitivity and specificity was rated as high, with moderate certainty for prevalence due to substantial heterogeneity.
Conclusion: Ultrasound demonstrates excellent diagnostic performance for pediatric intussusception in emergency settings, with high sensitivity and specificity maintained across patient subgroups and operator backgrounds. These findings support the continued use of ultrasound as the first-line diagnostic modality in both high- and low-resource environments and highlight the importance of structured training to optimize its accuracy. Future research should focus on multicenter prospective studies, standardization of ultrasound protocols, and the integration of artificial intelligence to further enhance diagnostic reliability.
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Details
- Title
- Accuracy of ultrasound for intussusception in pediatric emergency presentations: a systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis
- Creators
- Mohammed Alsabri - Drexel University, College of MedicineShree Rath - All India Institute of Medical Sciences BhubaneswarMohamed Amr Elkarargy - University College CorkAmira A. Aboali - Alexandria UniversityKhaled Abouelmagd - Al-Azhar UniversityAbdelaziz Abdelaziz Abdelftah Ramadan - Tanta UniversityLuis L. Gamboa - Drexel University, Emergency MedicinePatrick Yoo - St. Christopher's Hospital for ChildrenYisha Cheng - St. Christopher's Hospital for Children
- Publication Details
- International journal of emergency medicine, v 19(1), 41
- Publisher
- BMC
- Number of pages
- 12
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Pediatrics; College of Medicine; Emergency Medicine
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001686872200001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-105029669925
- Other Identifier
- 991022165641004721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Emergency Medicine