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Is color Doppler a reliable method for the diagnosis of malrotation?

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Abstract

Purpose

The gold standard for the diagnosis of malrotation is barium contrast study of the upper gastrointestinal system (UGCS), while color Doppler ultrasonography (CDUS) is another method used in the diagnosis. We investigated the value of CDUS for the diagnosis of malrotation in this study.

Methods

UGCS images, CDUS images, plain abdominal images, demographic data, and symptoms of 82 patients who were investigated for presumed malrotation during a 7-year period were evaluated, retrospectively.

Results

All patients underwent CDUS, and 18% of these patients were diagnosed with malrotation as the superior mesenteric vein was seen to be on the left of the superior mesenteric artery. We found that 16% of the 75 patients who underwent UGCS were diagnosed with malrotation. The sensitivity and specificity of CDUS in the diagnosis of malrotation was found to be 93.8 and 100%, respectively. The respective values for UGCS were 91.7 and 98.4%.

Conclusion

Current data in the literature and our results underline that UGCS may yield false-positive and false-negative results. Although CDUS was found to be a reliable method for the diagnosis of malrotation in our study, the limitations of UGCS are also recognized for CDUS. Prospective studies are needed to determine the more valuable method.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deparment of Pediatric Surgery, Dr. Sami Ulus Childrens Hospital, Babür cad. No. 44, Altındağ, Ankara, Turkey

    İbrahim Karaman, Ayşe Karaman, Ahmet Ertürk, Derya Erdoğan & İsmet Faruk Özgüner

  2. Deparment of Radiology, Dr. Sami Ulus Childrens Hospital, Babür cad. No. 44, Altındağ, Ankara, Turkey

    Hasibe Gökçe Çınar

Authors
  1. İbrahim Karaman
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  2. Ayşe Karaman
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  3. Hasibe Gökçe Çınar
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  4. Ahmet Ertürk
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  5. Derya Erdoğan
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  6. İsmet Faruk Özgüner
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Correspondence to İbrahim Karaman.

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Ethical standards

All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and later versions.

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Karaman, İ., Karaman, A., Çınar, H.G. et al. Is color Doppler a reliable method for the diagnosis of malrotation?. J Med Ultrasonics 45, 59–64 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0794-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10396-017-0794-5

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