Diagnostic performance of standardized ultrasound protocol for detecting perforation in pediatric appendicitis.

Background: Recent clinical trials in adults and children have shown that uncomplicated acute appendicitis can be successfully treated with antibiotics alone. As treatment strategies for acute appendicitis diverge, accurate preoperative diagnosis of complicated appendicitis and appendiceal perforation has become increasingly important for clinical decision-making.

Objective: To examine diagnostic performance of ultrasound for detecting perforated appendicitis in a single institution using a standardized technique.

Can ultrasound reliably identify complicated appendicitis in children?

Background: The ability of ultrasound to identify specific features relevant to nonoperative management of pediatric appendicitis, such as the presence of complicated appendicitis (CA) or an appendicolith, is unknown. Our objective was to determine the reliability of ultrasound in identifying these features.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of children who underwent appendectomy after an ultrasound at four children's hospitals.

Low-Cell-Number Epigenome Profiling Aids the Study of Lens Aging and Hematopoiesis.

Understanding how chromatin modification regulates development and disease can be limited by available material. Despite recent progress, balancing high-quality and reliable mapping using chromatin-immunoprecipitation-based deep sequencing (ChIP-seq) remains a challenge. We report two techniques, recovery via protection (RP)-ChIP-seq and favored amplification RP-ChIP-seq (FARP-ChIP-seq), that provide reproducible mapping in as few as 500 cells.