Abstract

Background

Ultrasound (US) is a noninvasive method of assessing the bowel that can be used to screen for bowel pathology, such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, in children. Knowledge about US findings of the bowel in healthy children is important for interpreting US results in cases where disease is suspected.

Objective

To assess the bowel wall thickness in different bowel segments in healthy children and to assess differences in bowel wall thickness among pediatric age categories.

Materials and methods

We conducted a systematic search in the PubMed, Embase, Cochrane, and CINAHL databases for studies describing bowel wall thickness measured by transabdominal US in healthy children. We excluded studies using contrast agent. We calculated the pooled mean and standard deviation scores and assessed differences among age categories (0–4 years, 5–9 years, 10–14 years, 15–18 years), first with analysis of variance (ANOVA) and further with subsequent Student’s t-tests for independent samples, corrected for multiple testing.

Results

We identified 191 studies and included 7 of these studies in the systematic review. Reported bowel wall thickness values ranged from 0.8 mm to 1.9 mm in the small bowel and from 1.0 mm to 1.9 mm in the colon. The mean colonic bowel wall thickness is larger in children ages 15–19 years compared to 0–4 years (range in difference: 0.3–0.5 mm [corrected P<0.02]).

Conclusion

The reported upper limit of bowel wall thickness in healthy children is 1.9 mm in the small bowel and the colon, and mean thickness increases slightly with age in jejunum and colon. These values can be used as guidance when screening for bowel-related pathology in children.

中文翻译：

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健康儿童的肠超声测量-系统评价和荟萃分析。

摘要

背景

超声（US）是一种评估肠的非侵入性方法，可用于筛查儿童的肠病理，例如炎症性肠病。了解美国健康儿童肠道的发现对于在怀疑患有疾病的情况下解释美国的结果非常重要。

目的

评估健康儿童不同肠段的肠壁厚度，并评估小儿年龄类别之间的肠壁厚度差异。

材料和方法

我们在PubMed，Embase，Cochrane和CINAHL数据库中进行了系统的搜索，以研究描述经腹腔超声在健康儿童中测量的肠壁厚度的研究。我们排除了使用造影剂的研究。我们首先计算方差分析（ANOVA），然后计算学生的平均和标准偏差得分，并评估年龄类别（0–4岁，5–9岁，10–14岁，15–18岁）之间的差异。独立样本的t检验，多次测试已校正。

结果

我们确定了191项研究，并将其中7项研究纳入系统评价。报告的肠壁厚度值在小肠中为0.8 mm至1.9 mm，在结肠中为1.0 mm至1.9 mm。15-19岁儿童的平均结肠肠壁厚度比0-4岁儿童大（差异范围：0.3-0.5毫米[校正后的P <0.02]）。

结论

据报道，健康儿童的小肠和结肠的肠壁厚度上限为1.9 mm，而空肠和结肠的平均厚度随年龄的增长而略有增加。在筛查儿童肠相关病理时，这些值可用作指导。