Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41667954›Full record

ReviewInternational journal of emergency medicine2026

Accuracy of ultrasound for intussusception in pediatric emergency presentations: a systematic review and diagnostic meta-analysis.

Mohammed Alsabri, Shree Rath, Mohamed Amr Elkarargy, Amira A Aboali, Khaled Abouelmagd, Abdelaziz Abdelaziz Abdelftah Ramadan, Luis L Gamboa, Patrick Yoo, Yisha Cheng

Abstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in International journal of emergency medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Review
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.

Mohammed AlsabriDepartment of Pediatrics, Al-thawara Modern General Hospital, Sana'a, Yemen. alsabri5000@gmail.com.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7278-2289
Shree RathDepartment of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Bhubaneswar, India.ORCID http://orcid.org/0009-0000-4273-0827
Mohamed Amr ElkarargyUniversity College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Amira A AboaliDepartment of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Damanhour Teaching Hospital, General Organization for Teaching Hospitals and Institutes, Damanhour, Egypt.
Khaled AbouelmagdCardiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, New Damietta, Egypt.
Abdelaziz Abdelaziz Abdelftah RamadanFaculty of Medicine, Tanta University, Tanta, Egypt.
Luis L GamboaDrexel University College of Medicine, Pediatric Emergency Medicine Fellowship, St Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Patrick YooPediatric Emergency Department, Department of Pediatrics, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Yisha ChengPediatric Emergency Department, Department of Pediatrics, St. Christopher's Hospital for Children, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionIntussusception 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.

methodsAdhering 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.

resultsA 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.

conclusionUltrasound 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.

Indexed as

Emergency departmentIntussusceptionPediatricsPoint-of-care ultrasoundSurgery

Identifiers

PMID41667954
PMCPMC12892616

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC-ND
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Registered trials

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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.