Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34581859›Full record

ArticlePediatric surgery international2022

A role for abdominal ultrasound in discriminating suspected necrotizing enterocolitis in congenital heart disease patients.

Stefanie P Lazow, Sarah A Tracy, Judy A Estroff, Richard B Parad, Ilse M Castro-Aragon, Alan M Fujii, Steven J Staffa, David Zurakowski, Catherine Chen

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Pediatric surgery international, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
6citing papers in PubMed
0.6field-weighted citation impact, top 31% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

6 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. [Ultrasound diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis in neonates].Zhongguo dang dai er ke za zhi = Chinese journal of contemporary pediatrics · 2026
    Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Annals of pediatric cardiology
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Stefanie P LazowDepartment of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue - Fegan 3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. slazow@bidmc.harvard.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1826-842X
Sarah A TracyDepartment of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue - Fegan 3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Judy A EstroffDepartment of Radiology, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Richard B ParadDepartment of Pediatric Newborn Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Ilse M Castro-AragonDepartment of Radiology, Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
Alan M FujiiDepartment of Pediatrics, Boston Medical Center/Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA.
Steven J StaffaDepartment of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue - Fegan 3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
David ZurakowskiDepartment of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue - Fegan 3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA.
Catherine ChenDepartment of Surgery, Boston Children's Hospital/Harvard Medical School, 300 Longwood Avenue - Fegan 3, Boston, MA, 02115, USA. catherine.chen@childrens.harvard.edu.
Boston Children's Hospital · USBoston University · USBrigham and Women's Hospital · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeWe evaluated the diagnostic utility of abdominal ultrasound (AUS), an adjunct to abdominal X-ray (AXR), for necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in congenital heart disease (CHD) patients.

methods86 patients with suspected NEC from 2009 to 2018 were classified as with CHD (n = 18) if they required cardiac intervention versus without CHD (n = 68). Clinical and radiological data were collected, including AXR and AUS concordance. Wilcoxon rank-sum test and Fisher's exact test were performed.

resultsCHD patients had higher birth weights (p < 0.001) and gestational ages (p < 0.001) than non-CHD patients. CHD patients presented more frequently with hypotension (p = 0.041) and less frequently with bilious emesis (p < 0.001). Overall, CHD patients were less likely to have AUS findings of pneumatosis (33.3 vs. 72.1%; p = 0.005) and decreased mural flow (0 vs. 20.6%; p = 0.035) compared to non-CHD patients. On concordance analysis, CHD patients had 3.9-fold more discordant studies with pneumatosis on AXR but not on AUS (33.3 vs. 8.8%; p = 0.016) compared to non-CHD patients. Urgent surgery was required in 5.6% of CHD patients versus 16.2% of non-CHD patients.

conclusionCHD patients with suspected NEC represent a distinct clinical population. AUS has particular utility in assessing findings of bowel viability in the CHD NEC population, reflecting reduced rates of surgical NEC.

Indexed as

Enterocolitis, NecrotizingHeart Defects, CongenitalInfant, Newborn, DiseasesHumansInfant, NewbornRetrospective StudiesUltrasonographyAbdominal radiographAbdominal ultrasoundCardiacCongenital heart diseaseNecrotizing enterocolitisPneumatosis

Identifiers

PMID34581859
PMCPMC8477364
OpenAlexW3203317208

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.