meckel’s scan for patient groups with and without gastrointestinal bleeding: a 15 years local review

introduction: to retrospectively analyze the outcome of patients who underwent meckel’s scan in a local centre in hong kong over the past fifteen years. diagnostic values in different referring indications were also reviewed. methods: all patients who referred for meckel’s scan in a local hospital in hong kong from 1/1/1996 to 31/12/2010 were identified. patients’ demographic data, presenting symptoms, imaging and clinical findings were reviewed and analyzed. results: a total of 105 patients were recruited, including 62 children and 43 adults. there were eight patients with positive meckel’s scans and 97 patients with negative scans. eight meckel’s diverticula were confirmed surgically. the sensitivity and specificity were 75% and 97.9% respectively. the positive and negative predictive values were 75% and 97.9% respectively. accuracy was 96.2%. performance was further improved if only patients with gastrointestinal bleeding were selected. sensitivity (85.7%) and negative predictive value (98.6%) were higher when compared to all indications, while specificity, accuracy and positive predictive value remained similar (97.3%, 96.3% and 75% respectively). conclusion: meckel’s scan is an accurate and useful test if the patient was referred for gastrointestinal bleeding. however its role is in doubt for non-gastrointestinal bleeding cases.