SGEM#274 - November 9, 2019 - By admin
Reference: Lee and Yun. Diagnostic Performance of Emergency Physician-Performed Point-of-Care Ultrasonography for Acute Appendicitis: A Meta-Analysis. AJEM 2019.
"CLINICAL QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE DIAGNOSTIC PERFORMANCE OF POINT OF CARE ULTRASONOGRAPHY (EP-POCUS) FOR DIAGNOSING ACUTE APPENDICITIS?
EP-POCUS EXHIBITED A POOLED SENSITIVITY OF 84% AND A POOLED SPECIFICITY OF 91%, WITH A POSITIVE LIKELIHOOD RATIO OF 7.0 AND A NEGATIVE LIKELIHOOD RATIO OF 0.22 FOR DIAGNOSING ACUTE APPENDICITIS
SGEM BOTTOM LINE: EP-POCUS HAS THE POTENTIAL TO DIAGNOSE ACUTE APPENDICITIS ESPECIALLY IN PEDIATRIC POPULATIONS AND APPEARS TO BE BETTER AT RULING IN RATHER THAN RULING OUT."