Keywords:
Foreign bodies, Diagnostic procedure, Plain radiographic studies, CT, Head and neck, Ear / Nose / Throat
Authors:
S. Kumar, C. Yu, J. Toppi, M. Ng, F. Hill, N. Sist; VIC/AU
DOI:
10.1594/ranzcr2018/R-0045
Results
The sensitivity for x-ray was 44% and specificity was 73% with a positive predictive value of 50% and negative predictive value of 69%.
The sensitivity of CT was 88%,
specificity 71%,
positive predictive value 65% and negative predictive value 90%.
There was no significant difference in terms of gender or race and bone impaction rates (P-value= 0.66 and 0.84,
respectively).
The mean age of presentations for true bone impaction was 55 and for false bone impaction 47.
The difference was significant (P-value= 0.02) (table 1).
The mean duration of presentation post suspected bone ingestion was 14 hours for true bone impaction,
and 44 hours for false bone impaction,
this difference was significant (P-value= 0.03) (table 1).
The sensitivity and specificity of plain film radiology was 44.4% and 73.3% respectively.
This is in accordance with literature and highlights plain film radiology is a poor screening tool[3-5].
The sensitivity and specificity of CT,
87.5% and 71.4% respectively is in accordance with literature[3-6].
Older age was more likely to be associated with true bone impaction.
This is likely due to physiological changes in swallowing associated with age[7,8].
The statistical difference (P = 0.02) between the mean duration of presentation post suspected bone ingestion for true and false bone impaction is likely due to the acute nature of true bone impactions[2].
We found no significant differences between true and false bone impaction for gender and race[2].