Both ultrasound and CT were more sensitive at detecting appendicitis, when compared with the final results of the surgery, if performed at a children's hospital.

The sensitivity for CT didn't vary that much. It was 93 percent at community hospitals, and nearly 99 percent at the children's hospital. The gap was wider for ultrasound. Here, the sensitivity at community hospitals was 39 percent, but at the children's hospital it reached 75 percent. Sensitivity was worse, for ultrasound, in obese kids, girls and those over 13.


Still, even the sensitivity at the children's hospital fell below what was found in a 2006 meta-analysis published in Radiology, the authors noted. That paper estimated a pooled sensitivity for ultrasound in the diagnosis of appendicitis in children at 88 percent.

"Ultrasound scans are difficult to perform correctly in this context, and what specialists can do at Children's Hospital may not be realistic or even available in a general hospital, which doesn't care for children as often," Saito said in a statement put out by her university.

Appendicitis accounts for 84,000 hospitalizations a year in the United States, according to the authors.

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