Retrospective Study on Ultrasound Patterns of Pediatric Abdominal Mass With Pathologic Correlation in Patients Admitted to Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital, Pediatric Surgical Department from 2006-2010, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Abstract

Introduction: Abdominal masses in pediatric patients are common findings& may be caused by congenital anomalies, tumors, trauma, infection or abscess, or by organ enlargement. Imaging modality choice is a core issue in the evaluation of pediatric patients.

Objective-: The objective of this study is to compare and examine the correlation of B-mode    US diagnosis with that of pathological diagnosis of pediatric abdominal masses (PAMs).

Methods: A retrospective study conducted on 83 (47 male, 36 female) pediatric abdominal   masses (PAM) casesadmitted to TASH, pediatric surgical ward to study the US patterns of PAMs withpathologic correlation to see diagnosis sensitivity of US.

Results: All the 83 patients had US evaluation, 42(50.6%) of them had both US & biopsy diagnoses, 60(72.3%) have US & FNAC result, 44(53%) had both US & IVP study, 10(12%) had both US & CT study, 8(9.6%) had both CT & Biopsy, 27(32.1%) had IVP & Biopsy results. When US diagnosis was compared with the final diagnosis, 31 of the 42 cases (74%) including cystic abdominal masses had similar diagnosis with the biopsy. From the 20 case with final diagnosis of wilm’s tumor (WT), 17(85%) were correctly diagnosed by ultrasound as WT. that showed US sensitivity to be high for WT in particular than PAMs as a whole. When the FNAC, U/S & Biopsy cross tabulation was analyzed, only13 of the 25 cases (52%) of FNAC results matched  the biopsy diagnosis but 19 of 25 cases (76%) of U/S diagnosis matched  the results of the final diagnosis, making U/S more sensitive than FNAC in the diagnosis of PAMs in our study.    

Conclusion: - In addition to describing the location, size & consistency of the PAMs, US was shown to give exact diagnosis in a good percentage of patients in this study. US has far better sensitivity (76% to 52%) in diagnosing PAMs as a whole compared to the FNAC results in the study. So, Ultrasound scanning is a noninvasive method of visualizing th cross sectional anatomic relation of PAMs with a good sensitivity in the diagnosis of the different PAMs which make it especially valuable in pediatric patients, where prompt diagnosis and treatment are essential & radiation exposure risk is a concern.