Abstract
Study objective We compare test characteristics of abdominal computed tomography (CT) with and without oral contrast for identifying intra-abdominal injuries. Methods This was a planned subanalysis of a prospective, multicenter study of children (contrast 99.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 95.7% to 100.0%) versus sensitivityno contrast 97.7% (95% CI 96.1% to 98.8%), difference 1.5% (95% CI-0.4% to 3.5%). The specificity of the oral contrast versus no oral contrast groups was specificitycontrast 84.7% (95% CI 82.2% to 87.0%) versus specificityno contrast 80.8% (95% CI 79.4% to 82.1%), difference 4.0% (95% CI 1.3% to 6.7%). Conclusion Oral contrast is still used in a substantial portion of children undergoing abdominal CT after blunt torso trauma. With the exception of a slightly better specificity, test characteristics for detecting intra-abdominal injury were similar between CT with and without oral contrast.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 107-114.e4 |
Journal | Annals of Emergency Medicine |
Volume | 66 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1 2015 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Emergency Medicine